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BEA. JACOB EATON, 



SOUTH READING, MASS. 



, JCXAS .E^Ng.^, ••*»• 



'James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars. *' 

■ST*. Paul 



MESS OF JOHN J. MPPY, WOBTJEX, 
1859* 






J- S3 oo 

'Of 



DEACON JACOB EATON, 



A large portion of the Bible is simple 
history ; either of individuals or communi- 
ties. 

And this is unquestionably the part 
■which most interests all classes of readers. 

How the story of Adam. Enoch and 
Noah ; Abraham ; Jacob and Joseph ; Moses, 
David and Solomon, will enchain the atten- 
tion of even children and make lasting im- 
pressions on their memories ! 

Nor is the biography of individuals of 
our own time -without its special interest. 

The mind and the history of every per- 
son form, as it were, a little world by 
itself; and though distinct; it may find its 
peculiar correspondence in the mind and 
heart of some reader; which no other his- 
tory could so perfectly and happily meet. 

It seems to be partly on this principle 
that divine Eevelation has such a multitude 
of statements and examples; figures, illus- 
trations and promises, to convey to an 



4 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

almost infinite variety of minds the same 
great truth in the most agreeable and sat- 
isfactory manner. This is not tautology, 
but a beautiful specimen of the inexhaus- 
tible resources of the infinite Creator. 

Whatever we can contribute toward ac- 
complishing the plan of the all-wise De- 
signer, though in an humble department, 
will have its use and reward. 

The biography of persons in the com- 
mon walks of life, has one advantage over 
that of individuals who occupy rare posi- 
tions of honor, power or affluence ; it comes 
home more directly to the " business and 
bosom " of the great mass of community. 

The " million " feel little sympathy in 
the history of persons elevated so far, 
above them that they can never hope to 
tread their path, or obtain their reward. 

They demand something more tangible 
&s an example for their imitation ; — a com- 
mon, every-day, plain, matter-of-fact char- 
acter, without the advantages of wealth, 
literature, or distinction; — and such is the 
subject of the following sketch, which is 
designed to show how a man in like humble 
circumstances, and subject to like passions 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 5 

as Ourselves, with the Bible in his hand 
and the fear of God in his heart, may 
tread the path of life through a world of 
toils, temptations, vicissitudes and disap- 
pointments, benefit his fellow beings, illus- 
trate true piety, and, by patient continuance 
in well-doing, seek for glory, honor and 
immortality, and obtain eternal life. 

And after all, who is a greater hero than 
such a man, and whose is a destiny more 
sublime and glorious ? 

Angels of light are his invisible attend- 
ants, rejoice in his progress and wait to 
announce his approach to the gates of the 
" Celestial City;" while the Omnicient 
Witness of his conflicts and final victory, 
the gracious " Judge standeth before the 
door," to intimate by the cheering smile of 
welcome, his final crown of " Come ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you before the foundation of 
the world!" 

Jacob, the second son of Lilley and 
Sarah Eaton, was born in Reading, October 
21st, 1771. 

On the paternal side, he descended from 



b LIFE AND TIMES OF 

William Eaton, who settled in Reading, in 
1653, nine years after its incorporation. 

John Eaton, son of the above, in 1658 
married a daughter of Dea. Thomas Ken- 
dall, one of the seven founders of the first 
church in Reading. 

This Dea. Kendall settled on the south- 
east of Reading Pond, and had ten children, 
all of whom were daughters. 

He was one of the most distinguished 
settlers of the town, and was select-man 
nearly forty years. 

The following inscription may be seen 
on his Grave-stone : 

Ci Sargent Thomas Kendall died July 22d 7 
1684, aged 64 

" Reader, weep, prepare to die, I say, 
For Death by none will be said nay. 
Here in the Earth is laid 
One of the 7 of this Church foundation, 
So to remain till the powerful voice say, 
Rise in health, a glorious habitation — 
A pattern of piety and peace : 
But now alas ! how short his race, 
Here we mourn, and mourn we must, 
To see Zion's stones like gold laid in dust." 

His widow survived him, dying in 1703, 
at the age of 85 years. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 7 

She was famous in her day as a "Mother 

in Israel." 

On her grave stone was inscribed : 
"Here lyeth the mother of ten. who had 
175 errand and great grand children." 

On the maternal side. Jacob Eaton de- 
scended, from Nicholas Brown, who came 
from Lynn, and was settled in Beading at 
its incorporation. 1644. and Peter Emer- 
son,* (grandson of Thomas Emerson, who- 
came from England, and was settled in 
Ipswich as early as 1639.) son of Bev. 
Joseph Emerson, who settled at MemHon, 
Mass. 

* This Peter Emerson, the great grandfather of 
Jacob Eaton, was named from his maternal grand- 
father, Peter Bulkley, who was born in England in 
15S3 — was a minister there twenty-one years — came to 
New England in 1635, and founded the first Church* in 
Concord, Mass., in 1636, of which he was pastor. 

Mr. Bulkley was distinguished as a scholar, an 
author, and a preacher ; and perhaps still more for his 
ardor and gifts in prayer. 

When Concord had arrived at some degree of con- 
sideration, it attracted the notice of a neighboring tribe- 
of Indians, who panted for its goods, and thirsted for 
the blood of its inhabitants. 

Having conspired its destruction, they had a council 
upon the best time and means of attacking Concord.. 
Several animating speeches were mr.de in favor of the- 
enterprise. 



S LIPS AXD TIMES OF 

Peter Emerson, son of Rev. Joseph E. 
of Mendon, removed to Reading, (now 
South Reading) and in 1696 married Anna, 
the onlv daughter of " Capt. John Brown, 
Esq.," who had settled on the east side of 
Reading Pond, where Dr. Hurd now resides. 

This Capt. Brown was born 1634, soon 
after the pilgrims came to this country. 

His second wife was the widow of Rev, 
Joseph Emerson, of Mendon, Mass., who 
was son of Thomas Emerson above men- 
tioned, and father of Peter. 

Capt. Brown remarked that he had made 

At length an old Chief arose and said to this effect : 

M Brothers, your plan is not good ; you cannot take 
Concord ; the Great Spirit will not suffer it. Don't 
you know Bulkley is there, the man of the big pray \ 
You can never take Concord." 

This frustrated their plot, and delivered Concord. 

This branch of his ancestors, Jacob Eaton could 
trace back for a period of 600 years, thus : Robert 
Bulkley, (supposed to have been born about A. D. 
1233, not far from the time when' sir, or family, names 
came into use in Eng.) William, Robert, Peter, Hugh, 
(known to have died in 1450), Humphrey, W'lliam, 
Thomas, Rev. Edward, D. D., Rev. Peter, B. D., (who 
settled in Concord, Mass., as above mentioned, and died 
there in 1659, aged 76.) Elizabeth Bulkley, (daughter 
of this Rev. Peter), who married Rev. Joseph Emerson, 
and was mother of Peter Emerson, who was great 
grandfather of Jacob Eaton, as aforesaid. 



DEACON JACOB BATON. 9 

his will and given all his estate to his only 
daughter Anna, and Anna to Peter. 

Their son, Dea. Brown Emerson, was 
the maternal grandfather of Jacob Eaton. 

The present Rev. Dr. Brown Emerson, 
of Salem, is his cousin, as also Rev. Brown 
Emerson, not long since of Dracut, Mass., 
and some others, all of whose names have 
been derived from this marriage. 

Capt. Brown was buried in the first 
grave-yard of Reading, situated at the 
south end of Reading Pond. 

The following inscription may be seen 
on his grave-stone. 

"To the memory oj Capt. John Brown, Esq., 
who, after he had served his generation by the 
will of God, jell asleep March 11th, A.J). 
1717, M. about 83. 

44 Witty, yet wise, grave, good, among the best 
Was he, (the memory of the just is blest,) 
Prudent, a pattern, and more, I say, 
A hearty mourner for the sins of the day ; 
Bless' d God, when dying, that he feared not death - 
His pious soul took wings, gave up her breath ; 
Dropp'd her mantle in the silent dust 
Which waits the resurrection of the just/' 

Thus it will be seen Jacob Eaton de- 
scended from two distinguished settlers 



10 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

and fathers of the town, who were town 
officers two centuries since. 

When a boy, he lived several years with 
a farmer, whose son went into the revolu- 
tionary army. 

He had few advantages of education. 

During these three years of his service, 
the school was more than two miles from 
his dwelling, and he could never get per- 
mission to leave his work and attend it but 
one single day in the time. 

Here it may not be uninteresting, es- 
pecially to the young reader, to spend a 
few moments in reviewing rural life in the 
first years of the subject of this memoir. 

It was then about 130 years after the 
town began to be settled by whites. 

There were a few Indians remaining, 
who had seen or been contemporary with 
some of the early white settlers. 

These children of the forest claimed ash 
and birch trees where they found them, for 
the purpose of making baskets and brooms. 

They had some skill in the use of native 
plants and roots as medicines. 

They were hardy and subject to few 
diseases. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 11 

The main business of the white inhabi- 
tants was farming. 

Each farm had a portion of mowing, 
pasture, tillage and woodland. 

Flax was cultivated 'and sheep raised to 
furnish the material for manufacturing do- 
mestic linen and woolen clothing. 

Access to the principal Pond for rotting 
flax, watering cattle, etc., was guaranteed 
to the inhabitants. 

Each farm-house, though not a cotton 
factory, was yet a clothing manufactory of 
spindles and loom. 

Here were the brake and the heckle to 
crush the stem, and comb and cleanse the 
fibres of flax for thread and cloth. 

Here were the linen and woolen cards, 
the linen-wheel, woolen-wheel, quill-wheel, 
and loom, and on one side of the broad 
fire-place was the vessel of dye-stuff for 
coloring the yarn and hose. 

Here were the churn, cheese-press, and 
other apparatus of the mistress of the 
dairy. 

Instead of couches and carpets, were 
basket or flag-bottomed chairs, and un- 
painted, sanded floors. 



12 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

Here also, were the large hand-sled* 
and snow-shoes, for taking corn to mill in 
deep snows and which were also sometimes 
used for longer joumies ; as my father on 
one occasion drew such a sled-load of veal 
to Salem market, on snow shoes, returning 
the same day ; which very strongly con- 
trasts with the present railroad travel to 
that city. 

The farmer then was also more or less a 
mechanic, at least for his own family, often 
making their shoes and boots in winter, 
when he could not labor on the land. 

Here the sons and daughters were per- 
sonalty instructed in the labors and arts of 
the parents. 

But as the early settlers in a wilderness 
have, necessarily, many hardships and pri- 
vation s, so it was with our fathers. 

In a large family some of the older 
children were occasionally put out to as- 
sist in obtaining their own living. 

* In the winter of 1780, the snow was so deep that 
the father of Jacob Eaton had to draw his corn on a 
hand-sled, over walls and fences, to Middletown, a 
distance of 7 miles, to get it ground. 

The snow in the yard of a neighbor's house was at 
that time 1J feet deep, and long remained there. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 13 

Thus it was in the case before us. Ja- 
cob, when not more than ten years old, had 
sometimes driven his load of wood to Sa- 
lem market by the time the sun was risen. 

Children then had a hardier training and 
were fed on simpler food, as bean por- 
ridge and salt meat broth, rye and Indian 
bre-ad: while milk porridge was a luxury. 

Clothing and shoes were coarser and 
stouter; houses were kept cooler, and all 
classes were more habitually in the fresh 
air than now. 

Fewer consumptive complaints were then 
prevalent and the mass of community 
seemed to have more stamina of constitu- 
tion. 

Books were scarce and the opportuni- 
ties of acquiring literature were small 
compared with what they are at present. 

Jacob had not, during his whole life, so 
much as a year's schooling. 

His birth occurred the year following 
the '•' Boston massacre/' {Note A.) when 
three Americans were shot down by the 
British troops ; and his early years were 
spent amidst the struggles and privations 
of our revolutionary war. 



14 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

During his life lie preserved that high 
estimate of our exalted privileges as an 
independent nation, purchased by the 
treasures and blood of our fathers, which 
it is perhaps impossible for persons to feel 
who did not witness those scenes of anx- 
iety and peril. 

In his youth he assisted his father on a 
small farm, and worked at the trade of a 
shoemaker. 

He was a young man of industrious and 
sober habits, and naturally of a reflecting 
and logical cast of mind. 

As it is a leading object of this memoir 
to exhibit his religious sentiments and 
character, I shall here introduce the ac- 
count of his Christian experience and pro- 
fession, which at my request he gave me 
several years before his decease. 

" In my childhood I do not recollect that 
I had any particular anxiety about myself 
as a sinner ; though occasionally I had a 
fear pass through my mind that it would 
not be well with me after death — that I 
might be sent away into a world of woe. 

" I attended the preaching of Mr. P., 
the Parish minister, from which I under- 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 15 

stood that great offenders, as felons and 
profligate characters, were in danger of 
perdition; but that civil, industrious, and 
quiet citizens were in a safe condition. — in 
a fair way to Heaven. 

" When about sixteen years old. I, with 
several persons near my age. met in a 
school-house three or four evenings to en- 
gage in some religious exercises and to 
make arrangements for conducting such 
meetings. 

"None of us were professors of religion 
or specially concerned about ourselves,. or 
the interests of religion. 

" I hardly know what induced us to take 
so extraordinary a stop as to attempt set- 
ting up religious meetings. 

"It would seem as if some religious con- 
viction came over our consciences and 
awakened us to this temporary effort to 
quiet its appeals. 

. " When we came together to commence 
our meetings, and to digest a plan for their 
continuance, we talked some on religious 
subjects, but did not succeed in conducting 
the meetings to our profit or satisfaction. 

" In short, I was convinced that at a 



16 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

••meeting professedly religious, prayer was 
indispensable,* and no one of us compos- 
ing the meeting, knew enough about this 
duty to presume to engage in it. 

" So the meetings were given up by mu- 
tual consent. 

" When I was seventeen years of age, 
my brother next older than myself and a 
young man, one of our neighbors, were 
anxious about their spiritual interests, and 
■manifested this solicitude in their counte- 
nances and deportment. 

•"I jeered them as hypochondriacal. 
One day overhearing one of them say 
.something on the doctrine of election, I 
-expressed my disbelief and reprobation of 
such a doctrine ; alleging, if that were true, 
310 person now supposed a sinner would be 
guilty for his conduct. 

" Being left without the possibility of 



* " Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice 
Returning from his ways ; 
While Angels in their songs rejoice, 
And cry ■ Behold, he prays.' 

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 
The Christian's native air, 
His watch- word at the gates of death ; 
He enters heaven with prayer." 



DEAC0X JACOB EATON. 17 

ffoino; to heaven or avoiding hell, he must 
act under a fatal necessity, and hence be 
perfectly excusable for his deeds, however 
unfortunate he might be in their results. 

" When about eighteen years of age my 
brother L. told me that a young man who 
had been a school-fellow with me and 
whom I regarded as a very ill-humored 
boy, had become pious, and was very ac- 
tive in prayer and conference meetings in 
the adjoining parish in this town. 

"I attended one of these meetings and 
heard him pray and exhort. 

" I was much affected with the great 
change which he had evidently experienced. 

" I was persuaded that he possessed 
something of which I was destitute. {Note 
B.) 

" On my returning from this meeting, I, 
with two other young men, engaged to set 
up meetings for prayer and conference, on 
Sabbath evenings in our village. 

"One of these young men had lately 
made profession of religion, (Note C.) and 
we began our meetings at his house the 
next week. 



18 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

"These meetings have since been con- 
tinued. 

"About this time, I occasionally went to 
the above mentioned Parish to hear Mr, S., 
-a young minister who had then lately been 
settled there, and whose preaching had be- 
come the subject of considerable remark. 

"I perceived that Mr. S. was a very dif- 
ferent preacher from Mr. P., (Note D.) un- 
der whose instructions I had been bred. 

" He seemed to regard the natural de- 
pravity of man as much deeper and greater 
than I had been taught to consider it. So 
that I began to have some alarm about my 
character as a transgressor of God's holy 
law, and how I should escape its fearful 
penalty. 

" Deep are the wounds which sin has made ; 
"Where shall the sinner find a cure r 
In vain, alas ! is nature's aid ; 

The work exceeds her utmost power. 

** See in the Saviour's dying blnod, 

Life, health, and bliss abundant flow ; 
'Tis only that dear, sacred flood 

Can ease thy pain and heal thy woe." 

"I went to Mr. P., my minister, to con- 
sult him on the subject of my anxiety. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 19 

" He told me I ought to read the Bible, 
meditate on religion, and form resolutions 
to live a good life. 

" All this appeared very rational to me, 
and I returned home resolving to follow 
his advice. 

"As I had heard much said about com- 
ing to Christ, I thought after I had attended 
to the religious duties recommended to me 
some months, and made suitable prepara- 
tions for such an act. I would come to 
Christ for the completion of my salvation, 

" The idea of going directly to Christ 
for life and salvation never occurred to 
rne.* 

" About this time I heard Mr. P. preach 
a funeral sermon from these words : • These 
are they who came out of great tribulation 
and have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Damb. 3 

* Andrew Fuller, in speaking of his early religious 
impressions, says, "I was not then aware that any poor 
sinner had a warrant to believe in Christ for the salva- 
tion of his soul ; but supposed there must be some 
kind of qualification to eiftitle him to do it ; yet I was 
aware that I had no qualifications. Had I known that 
any poor sinner might warrantably have trusted in 
Christ for salvation, I believe I should have done so 
and have found rest to mv soul sooner than I did." 



20 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

ik The discourse treated somewhat on 
the employments of saints in heaven. 

" During this sermon, I had such a view 
of the realities of heaven and the joys of 
holy beings there, as I never had before. 

" My mind was so completely absorbed 
with this subject, that I knew not who sat 
next me on the seat. 

" I thought, truly, such a blessed world 
is worth laboring hard to obtain. 

" I now regarded myself as seeking re- 
ligion. I spent more than a year prepar- 
ing, as I supposed, to come to Christ. 

" During this period of preparation there 
was a passage of Scripture that repeatedly 
came to my mind with much force : — < My 
son, give me thy heart.' 

u This appeared to be God's language to 
me ; and I could not say that it was an un- 
reasonable demand from that Being who 
liad made me and bestowed so many bless- 
ings upon me. 

" Indeed, I resolved to comply with this 
requisition, and with the exhortation which 
I often heard addressed from the pulpit to 
sinners to submit to God, and yield them- 
selves to him. In pursuance of this pur- 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 21 

pose I retired by myself, fell on my knees, 
and attempted to give my heart to God. 

"But to my surprise and distress, I 
found my heart drew back ! It seemed 
decidedly unwilling thus to devote itself 
to God. 

u From this I first began to perceive my 
innate distrust of God's kindness and good- 
ness, and my unbelief of the sincerity and 
truth of his gracious promises to those 
who confide in him. 

" I found I had a higher opinion of my- 
self than of God. 

" I was more willing to believe in my 
own disposition to take good care of my- 
self than of God's disposition to bless me ; 
so I felt safer in my own hands than in 
God's. 

" There was something; in me which se- 
cretly said, 1 1 am afraid to give myself to 
God. I fear he will not save me.' 

" In reflecting on my attempts to yield 
and submit to the Lord, I could not but 
perceive I had done nothing like giving my 
heart to him and truly devoting myself to 
his service ; and, worst of all, I felt no 
disposition within me to perform an act 



22 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

which the Scripture and my conscience 
told me was so reasonable and indispen- 
sable. 

" This was a painful discovery and made 
me begin to suspect that the doctrine 
which I had long felt unwilling to believe, 
namely, of man's entire aversion to God 
and holiness, was distressingly true. 

" Can aught beneath a power divine 
The stubborn will subdue ? 
'Tis thine, almighty Saviour, thine 
To form the heart anew. 

" 'Tis thine the passions to recall, 
And upwards bid them rise, 
And make the scales of error fall 
Prom reason's darkened eyes. 

lf To chase the shades of death away 
And bid the sinner live ; 
A beam of heaven, a vital ray 
'Tis thine alone to give." 

" I attended the Sabbath evening meet- 
ings which I, with a number of young 
people, had agreed to support. 

" At these meetings I increased my 
knowledge of religious truth. 

"But at this time I was greatly ignorant 
of the Bible and its doctrine. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 23 

"I recollect that when a member of our 
meeting proposed to have read at the next 
interview a book which treated on the 
' new birth/ I could not imagine to what 
subject it referred* 

" I continued without any material change 
in my feelings till the summer of 1792. 

u I had repeatedly made such attempts 
to i submit to God J and give him my heart, 
as already mentioned, and with no more 
success. 

u I was at times much distressed in view 
of my character and prospects. 

" It seemed as if I had exhausted my 
resources and expedients, and knew not 
what next to do. 

" I recollect one time in particular, on 
my return from an evening meeting, as I 
arrived at the door of my home I heard 
persons singing psalms and hymns. I 
stopped and reflected on my sad condition. 

" I could not sing the praises of God. 
I could not even feel to trust my soul in 
his hands and hope in his mercy. 

"I felt a dreadful hardness of heart and 
want of relish for spiritual enjoyments, 
while at the same time my conscience was 



24 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

too much enlightened; (Note E.) and I had 
too deep a conviction of the vanity of sin- 
ful pleasures to indulge in them with any 
satisfaction or comfort. 

"Thus I seemed shut out both from re- 
ligious and. irreligious pleasures. 

" O, change this heart of stone 
Almighty power divine, 
For none but sovereign grace alone 
Can such a heart refine. 

" This change will show the love 
That Jesus bears to me ; 
This change will lead to joys above, 
Where no more change will be." 

"But in the summer of 1792 I found a 
great change in my feelings and views. 

" Yet this change did not to my percep- 
tion come suddenly upon me, or through 
any remarkable providence, or the applica- 
tion of any particular portion of Scripture 
which I had read. 

" I do not recollect the day or week, or 
perhaps month, when I was first aware of 
this change ; or when I stopped particu- 
larly to consider it, or to contrast it with 
my former feelings. 

" I was as it were, gradually and insen- 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 25 

sibly led into a new train of reflections, 
and new view of God's character, law and 
government. 

" I saw this whole subject in an aspect 
so consoling, delightful and absorbing, that 
I did not stop to consider how this change 
had happened to me, or what it was that I 
had experienced. 

" My feelings were exceedingly different 
from what they had been. I now found no 
difficulty in giving myself most unreserved- 
ly into the hands of God. 

" I felt a confidence in his kindness and 
goodness, as great as had been my distrust 
of him. 

" It was the joy and rejoicing of my 
heart that I was in his hands, as clay is in 
the hands of the potter. 

" I felt as though I would much rather 
my nearest and dearest friends should be 
in his hands than in my own, because I 
thought he was much more disposed, as 
well as able, to do them good than I was. 

" About this time, one day as I was 
mowing in the field, all creation seemed — 
so to speak — to be full of God. Not only 
the bright orb of the firmament and the 



26 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

nobler animals of the earth, but, also, the 
least blade, of grass that I cut, spoke the 
existence and presence of that Being, 
whose power alone could cause its growth, 
or support it on its stem, 

" When verdure clothes the fertile vale 
And blossoms deck the spray; 
And fragrance breathes in every gale, 
How sweet the vernal day ! 

11 O, God of nature, and of grace, 
Thy heavenly gifts impart ; 
Then shall my meditation trace 
Spring, blooming in my heart." 

" At this moment something seemed to 
whisper me, 'It is only because you sec 
these objects that you have this impres- 
sion/ 

"I then closed my eyes to ascertain if 
the impression would leave me, when I in- 
stantly found that the fresh zephyr which 
was then blowing on me conveyed to my 
ears and sense of touch the same joyful in- 
telligence of the presence of the blessed 
God, that the surrounding objects of sight 
had done to my vision. 

" So I said to myself, l This very breeze 
of wind is full of God.' 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 27 

" There seems a voice in every gale, 
A tongue in every opening flower, 
Which tells, O Lord, the wondrous tale; 
Of thy indulgent love and power. 

M The birds that rise on quivering "wing, 
Appear to hymn their Maker's praise ; 
And all the mingling sounds of spring, 
To thee a general anthem raise." 

" I had also a new view of the character 
and sacrifice of Christ. (Note F.) 

" It seemed to me as if even all my tem- 
poral blessings flowed to me as it were or* 
the blood of the Saviour. 

" I said of my great Redeemer, — 

M There's not a gift his hand bestows 
But cost his heart a groan." 

" This gave a new relish to even my or- 
dinary food. Like the converts of Pente- 
cost, I 'ate my meat with gladness;' and 
never before did my meals taste so excel- 
lently. 

"I could obey the Apostolic injunction 
i Whether you eat or drink, do all in the 
name of the Lord Jesus.' 

" My heart said, <0, that blessed name ! r 

" O, may I live to reach that place, 
Where he unveils his lovely face ; 
Where all his glories you behold, 
And sing his name to harps of gold.' 



28 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

u After this, doctrines which before had 
seemed to me exceedingly puzzling and 
irreconcilable, if not contradictory, began 
to appear consistent and reasonable. 

" The holiness of God's law, instead of 
appearing too strict and severe, looked 
excellent, just as it should be. 

" I saw that this law required me to love 
God better than myself, because I was 
commanded to love my neighbor as myself, 
while I was commanded to love God more 
than my neighbor. 

" To this I now said amen, as perfectly 
proper and right. 

" With the doctrine of God's sovereignty 
I was no longer disposed to quarrel. 

" I not only saw that God by right of 
creation and power, had the prerogative to 
do as he will with his own, but I now had 
such views of his justice and goodness, 
that my heart said, i Before all beings in 
the universe, let God perform his whole 
pleasure. — he is too wise to err, too good 
to be unkind.' 

u As to the doctrine of election, which 
had been such a hard saying and stum- 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 29 

bling block to me, I now beheld it through 
new eyes. 

" Instead of regarding it as some have 
expressed, as a barrier to keep people out 
of heaven, I viewed it as the only barrier 
that kept any of the human race out of 
hell. 

" I had such experience of the depravity 
of my own heart, and its entire aversion 
to God and holiness, that I concluded if 
the rest of mankind had such hearts as 
mine, we all with one consent should con- 
tinue to walk the broad road to destruc- 
tion till we stumbled on the dark mountains 
of death and perdition, did not the special 
grace of God arrest us in our course. 

" I thought the poet perfectly correct in 
his address to the Father of mercies, 
where he says, — 

li * Had not thy choice prevented mine, 
I ne'er had chosen thee.' {Xote G.) 

" Grace first contrived the way 
To save rebellious man; 
And all the steps that jrrace display 
Which drew the wondrous plan. 



D 



30 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

" Grace all the work shall crown 
Through everlasting days ; 
It lays in heaven the top-most stone, 
And well deserves the praise." 

" Electing love I considered but another 
name for the special grace of God, con- 
ferred upon any sinner in his regeneration. 
If we love God, we love him " because he 
first loved us.' The very sentiment of the 
Apostle when he says, 'By the grace of 
God I am what I am.' And when he in- 
quires, ' Who maketh thee to differ, and 
what hast thou that thou hast not re- 
ceived ? ' 

" Surely every good and every perfect 
gift cometh down from above — from the 
Father of lights. 

" As to the reason why God should re- 
generate some of mankind, while others, 
so far as we can see, continue in their own 
chosen course of vice, living and dying in 
their sins, I knew no more of this, than 
why God should reveal to us that he has 
provided a way for the salvation of fallen 
men, while he says nothing of any redemp- 
tion for fallen angels, though a nobler 
race of intelligences ; or of any other of 
those l secret things that belong to God.' 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 31 

" Yet I had no doubt that if God ever 
told us any thing further on this subject, 
he would show us that he k&d a good and 
sufficient reason for his conduct, and that 
the Judge of all the earth had done right ; 
and here I was willing to rest the whole 
matter. 

a As to the sincerity of God in calling 
all the ends of the earth to look unto him 
and receive salvation, and directing the 
Gospel to be preached to every creature, 
I believed that Christ's propitiation for the 
sins of the whole world, was general in its 
nature, though particular in its application ; 
that the same atonement for sin which 
Christ has now made, would have been <as 
necessary if only Enoch, the seventh from 
Adam, were saved of all our race, as 
though every individual of Adam's poster- 
ity were saved; hence, that the Gospel 
feast was super-abundant for whosoever 
would partake of it; and that nothing 
prevented any from eating and living for- 
ever, but their own love of sin {Note if.) 
and aversion to the holy joys of heaven. 

'• I also saw the fallacy of the argument 
which I had inconsiderately used ; namely. 



32 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

that if the salvation of men depended on 
the sovereign grace of God, then a man 
was not to be blamed for his conduct. 

" I perceived that this argument would 
go to exonerate all the devils in hell from 
blame and to destroy the very idea of 
moral accountability in any of God's de- 
pendent creatures. 

u I saw that there was, and could be no 
excuse for sin, else sin would no longer be 
sin, and no intelligent man would ever 
feel guilty for his vices. 

" But not only was my understanding 
convinced of the rectitude of God's deal- 
ings with his creatures, but most devoutly 
did my heart respond amen to the same, 
for I esteemed his judgments concerning 
all things to be right. So I had no longer 
a controversy with my Maker ; and I trust 
he had no longer one with me, — that I was 
now reconciled to him through the blood 
of his Son. 

" After relating the exercises of my 
mind as above, I have been asked, — 'At 
what time in your narrative do you con- 
sider yourself to have been regenerated ? ' 
(Note 1.) And I have answered that I 



DEACOX JACOB EATOX. 33 

eannot tell. I never presume to deter- 
mine on this question. 

" A great change was produced in my 
feelings and views, so imperceptible in its 
progress, and so delightful in its results, 
that I could never mark the period of its 
commencement any more than the point 
where, and the time when, a mighty wind 
began to blow. 

" One thing I know, that in the summer 
of 1792 I felt and saw very differently 
from what I had ever done before. And 
since that time I have indulged the hope 
that this change of feelings and views was 
the consequence of the regenerating power 
of God operating on my heart, making me 
in a blessed sense, * a new creature, 1 and 
doing that for me which I could never have 
done for myself; though the precise time 
and manner of this operation are to me 
alike unknown. 

11 Some months after I began to hope that 
the Lord had called me with < an high and 
holy calling, not according to my works, 
but according to his own purpose and 
grace,' and forgiven my sins for Christ's 
sake, I was led to consider the duty of 



o# 



34 LIFE AXD TIMES OP 

publicly professing the name of my Re- 
deemer. I had for some time frequently 
attended the ministry of Mr. S., before 
mentioned, and thought that the fundamen- 
tal sentiments which he preached, were 
according to the Scriptures. 

" I now made the Bible my great study, 
and from it prayerfully endeavored to 
learn the will of God. There was one 
subject of which I could not make the 
Scripture account look like the practice of 
Mr. S. 

" I refer to the administration of baptism 
and the plan of church building. From 
the Scripture description of baptism, it 
would appear to me, that those who were 
baptised, were immersed in the water: or, 
in Scripture language were i buried in bap- 
tism.' 

" Indeed, Luke's history of the baptism 
of the eunuch, (see Acts, 8:36,) seemed 
just like a description of a baptizing scene 
among the people called Baptists, which I 
had heard spoken of, though I had never 
witnessed. 

" The baptisms mentioned in the New 
Testament, seemed to be on a profession 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 35 

of faith, and I could there find no account 
of the baptism of infants too young to un- 
derstand the gospel, or make profession of 
their faith in it. 

u I went to Mr. S., to see if he could re- 
move my difficulties on these points; but 
his arguments were unsatisfactory, 

" Still I tried to bring my mind to the 
practice of the Pedo-Baptists. (Note J.) for 
I was sincerely desirous of uniting with 
them, having friends among them whom I 
much respected, and hoping I might find 
some way to avoid the reproach of joining 
a sect who were so contemptuously spoken 
of as were the Baptists. 

u Though the account of Christ's coming 
1 up straightway out of the water ' when 
John had baptized him, and of John's bap- 
tizing in Jordan and at Enon, near to 
Salem, because there was much water 
there, seemed so conclusive that John im- 
mersed the persons whom he baptized ; yet 
at one period. I began to hope that the ar- 
gument that • John's baptism was not gos- 
pel baptism.' would help me and somehow 
make it do for me to join the Pcdo-Bap- 
tists, 



3G LIFE AND TIMES OF 

"But the statement of the Evangelist, 
that ' in the beginning of the gospel of 
Jesus Christ, came John the Baptist, 
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, etc.' 
appeared to settle the question about 
John's baptism being i Gospel baptism/ 
(Note K.) 

11 And beside, when Christ, after his re- 
surrection, commissioned his Apostles to go 
and teach all nations, baptizing them, etc.,' 
he gave no intimation that the ordinance 
of baptism was to be administered in a 
different way from what it previously had 
been. 

" John came to prepare the way of the 
Lord before him, and it would have seemed 
strange if he had not walked in the way 
thus prepared. 

"John pointed his disciples to the Lamb 
of God who taketh away the sin of the 
world and baptized those who believed in 
the Messiah. 

"And this was the same that the Apos- 
tles of Christ did. 

" So I was finally driven to the disagree- 
able alternative of forsaking the practice 
of Mr. S., and many of my esteemed 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 37 

friends, or violating my conscience as to 
what the New Testament taught as my 
duty. 

" I chose the former, and have never had 
occasion to repent of my choice. (Note L.) 

u In the spring of 1794, I, with my older 
brother and a neighbor, a young man of 
my age, went to Boston, and had an inter- 
view with Elder Baldwin, Pastor of the 
2d Baptist Church there, to whom we were 
all strangers. 

" We related our religious exercises and 
sentiments to him, and desired him to bap- 
tize us, according to what we understood 
to be the Scriptural representation of this 
ordinance. 

" He subsequently immersed us in Read- 
ing Pond, and this was the first time I saw 
this ordinance administered." 

It is seen by the foregoing narrative that 
Mr. E. was in a sense driven by his own 
experience to embrace his cardinal reli- 
gious sentiments; or in scripture language, 
" Shut up to the faith of the Gospel." 

He had at first no belief of such inher- 
ent depravity and aversion to God in his 
heart as he found there ; or such want of 



38 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

faith or trust in the character of God ; or 
such indisposition to prayer and devout 
exercises ; or such inability to fit himself 
for a reception of the Gospel. 

Thus, contrary to his previous ideas, he 
was compelled to believe in man's total es- 
trangement from God. And hence, in the 
absolute necessity of supernatural power 
to create a clean heart within him, — and 
as the Deity " worketh all things accord- 
ing to the counsel of his own will," and 
acts from choice, and chose his course " be- 
fore the world began," — he felt compelled 
to admit the disagreeable doctrine of elec- 
tion or choice, which he had before rejected 
and despised. 

As he had no merit of his own, he was 
obliged to depend wholly on the atone- 
ment of Christ for justification. Thus he 
looked to " the great God our Saviour," as. 
u the true God and eternal life," and lelt 
bound to "honor the Son even as he hon- 
ored the Father." 

These sentiments, being developed and 
interwoven with his religious experience 
as well as drawn from the Scriptures, he 
never ceased to cherish. Tlicv were the 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 39 

spring of his action and the ground of his 
hope. 

The singular circumstance which pre- 
vented him and his companions from being 
baptized in Boston is detailed in the "His- 
torical sketch of the Baptist Church in 
South Reading/' vide page 11, — and briefly 
stated in another part of this work. 

But this extraordinary specimen of pre- 
judice against the Baptists and hostility to 
true piety, by God's controlling providence 
led to a religious revival here, which was 
the first of nine considerable revivals that 
during the sixty years following he wit- 
nessed (Note M.) in his native town; and 
of this first, the services attending his bap- 
tism were instrumental. 

As we are now introduced to the first 
administration of baptism, or immersion, 
in Reading, it may here be pertinent to 
add a few remarks on the Baptist denomi- 
nation at that time in New England. 

They had been a sect not only very gen- 
erally " spoken against '' from the time 
Roger Williams was banished from Massa- 
chusetts to the Indian forests, but occa- 
sionally fined and imprisoned, and Obadiah 



40 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Holmes, of Salem, was publicly whipped 
for attending a Baptist meeting in Lynn* 

At the time referred to, however, the 
principles of religious toleration began to 
be better understood, and people more 
fearlessly asserted their native right of free 
inquiry and liberty of conscience. 

The Baptists then were but sparsely 
scattered over the country.* 

They had but six churches within twenty 
miles of Reading, though that included the 
most densely populated part of the coun- 
try ; and but one Association in New Eng- 
land, the Warren, named from the town of 
Warren, R.L, where it held its first session 
in 1767, and also its second and third. 
Elder Isaac Backus, pastor of Middleboro' 
church, was clerk of the Association at its 
organization. 

Elder Backus, for half a century, exert- 
ed himself to obtain and establish religious 
freedom. A congregationalist, who was 
well acquainted with him, speaks thus of 
him : "All New England is indebted to Mr. 

*In 1740, the Baptist denomination on all this conti- 
nent numbered only 37 churches, and probably le»s 
than 3000 members. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 41 

Backus, more than to any other man, for his 
historical researches in relation to our ear- 
ly ecclesiastical history. All of us, as well 
as our brethren of the Baptist order, are 
indebted to him for the firm and strong 
stand which he took and maintained, and 
the active perseverance which he manifest- 
ed for fifty long years in favor of ' soul li- 
berty.' Mr. Bancroft bears testimony, that 
the history by Mr. Backus is the most re- 
liable, as to its facts, of any of our early 
histories. " 

"Father Backus" died at Middleboro' in 
1806, at the age of 83 years, after having 
planted most of the Baptist churches in 
Plymouth County.* The Association in 
1767 contained but four churches, namely, 
Warren, Bellingham, Haverhill and Mid- 
dleborough. 

Warren was then the seat of Brown 
University, which there had its beginning, 
and whose first president, Elder James 



* From this County proceeded our pioneer mission- 
ary to the millions of "India beyond the Ganges," 
twenty years after our Baptist brethren in England had 
«ent the first missionaries, William Carey and his asso- 
ciates, to the millions of " hither India." 



42 • LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Manning, (afterwards Dr. Manning,) was 
the first Pastor of Warren church. 

The University was subsequently remov- 
ed to Providence ; where President Manning 
died in 1791. 

During his life he did what he could to 
encourage a taste for the acquisition of lit- 
erature and general science in the denomi- 
nation, and it is cause of gratitude that his 
office has since been so long filled by so 
able an advocate of missions, of sound 
learning and true piety.* 

Elder Hezekiah Smith, (afterwards Dr. 
Smith,) founder and first pastor of 'Haver- 
hill church, was a classmate with Dr. Man- 
ning at Princeton College, N.J., and though 
a man of excellent spirit and amiable man- 
ners, when he first went to Haverhill as a 
preacher, such was the prejudice against 
the Baptists, that the Selectmen of the 
town sent an officer to warn him out of the 
place. He was otherwise personally in- 
sulted and his life endangered. When 
preaching at a private house he was as- 
saulted by a sheriff and his gang. His son 
showed the writer a stone which was thrown 
* President Wayland. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 43 * 

through the bed-room window at his father 
and struck near his head, of sufficient size 
to have proved fatal, had it struck him. 

But Dr. Smith was not frightened away 
from Haverhill. During most of the revo- 
lutionary war he served as a chaplain in the 
American Army, and died at EL in 1804, 
greatly beloved and lamented. 

As the Baptists were from principle the 
advocates of freedom, both civil and relig- 
ious, they were almost uniformly support- 
ers of the revolution and American Inde- 
pendence. 

Their religious teachers and. church ex- 
penses were generally paid by voluntary 
contributions. 

The oldest Baptist church in this country 
was founded at Providence, R.I., in 1G39. 

One of the oldest Baptist churches in 
Massachusetts, the first B. church in Bos- 
ton, was founded in 16GS, and the second 
one there commenced in 1743. 

Of the Fastors of these churches, — 
Messrs. Samuel Stillman and Thomas Bald- 
win, — at the period of which we are speak- 
ing, Dr. Sharp remarks, " Their early train- 
ing, the character of their minds, and their 



44 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

pulpit talents, were widely different. It 
was, however, a difference not occasioning 
a hindrance, but a furtherance of the gos- 
pel. It was a difference suited to the in- 
tellectual condition and tastes of different 
classes of hearers, and, under God, was 
conducive to the increase and prosperity, 
not only of those two churches, but of the 
denomination. One possessed strong ar- 
gumentative and imaginative powers, and 
drawing his facts and illustrations chiefly 
from his study of the Bible, from his own 
experience and observation, and his almost 
intuitive knowledge of what was in man, he 
touched the springs of the human heart, and 
with God's blessing, turned multitudes from 
the "paths of disobedience to the wisdom 
of the just." 

The other had, in early life, enjoyed the 
advantages of a liberal education, and of 
refined and cultivated society. His polish- 
ed and dignified manners won for him the 
love and respect of the whole community. 
And the earnest and yet soft tones in which 
he announced the messages of his divide 
Master, diffused a gentle and persuasive 
influence over the minds of delighted 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 45 

and constantly crowded assemblies. His 
preaching, moreover, was not merely as a 
lovely song, or as one that playeth skil- 
fullv on an instrument, awakening moment- 
ary emotions of pleasure, which soon pass 
away. It was with power. It was the 
means of salvation to many who heard him. 
Not a few who went only to admire, return- 
ed to pray. Their interest in the speaker 
ended in feeling a still greater interest in 
the truths which he taught. 

Such were those two most excellent and 
universally beloved ministers of Christ. 
One was the pastor over the First Baptist 
church in Boston a little over 42 years ; 
the other was the pastor of the Second, for 
a period of more than 32 years." 

The latter of these, Dr. Baldwin, who 
survived the former nearly twenty years ; 
by his various labors as a writer and preach- 
er was eminently a leading minister of his 
denomination in New England, serving 
greatly to promote their increase and im- 
provement. 

In the summer of 1794, Mr. Eaton was 
urged by a gentleman in West Bridgewater 
to assist him in harvesting his hay, which 



46 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

he consented to do. There was then some 
special attention to religion in that town. 

After arriving in the town, where he was 
an entire stranger, he accidentally saw, as 
he was passing the street, the man that was 
to employ him, standing in the door of a 
neighbor's house. He invited Mr. Et to 
come in. After he had entered, he was in- 
formed that there was a young woman in 
the house who was very deeply distressed 
about her spiritual welfare ; and he was re- 
quested to converse with and pray for her, 
which he did. 

Thus early after his profession of relig- 
ion, the Lord, in his providence, seemed to 
give him an intimation of what he would in 
his subsequent life be repeatedly called to 
perform. 

" Go where the sick recline, 
Where mourning hearts deplore ; 
And where the sons of sorrow pine, 
Dispense your hallowed lore. 

Be faith, which looks above, 
With prayer, your constant guest ; 
And wrap the Saviour's changeless love 
A mantle round your breast. " 

His petitions for the distressed person 



DEAC0X JACOB EATOX. 47 

were heard; during that week the subject 
of them, Miss Rebecca Holmes, was enabled 
to rejoice in the hope of the gospel. Two 
years after she became his wife. 

His residence in Bridgewater was only 
about a month. While laboring there with 
his hands his thoughts were employed on 
higher subjects. He attended the religious 
meetings on Sabbath and week-day eve- 
nings, and by his prayers and exhortations 
promoted the good work. 

Books were then comparatively scarce 
and expensive, and as most of his time was 
occupied in manual labor,, the Bible consti- 
tuted his principal library and study ; and 
thus it was with him during the most of 
his life. 

As the denomination to which he had at- 
tached himself, professed to regard the 
Bible as their spiritual Magna Charta, their 
grand rule of faith and practice, he felt less 
deference for human authoritv and tradi- 
tion, and more anxiety to bring every sen- 
timent to the infallible "law and testi- 
mony." 

For more than sixty years of his study 
of the scriptures, he had not the assistance 



48 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

of even a Concordance. He, therefore, 
formed the habit of fixing in his mind the 
book, the chapter, and often the verse of 
important texts to which he wished to re- 
fer. In this way he obtained a more ex- 
tensive and accurate knowledge of the 
Bible than, perhaps, any other individual I 
have known. He indeed became " mighty 
in the Scriptures." 

M Holy Bible, book divine, 
Precious treasure ! thou art mine ; 
Mine, to tell me whence I came ; 
Mine, to teach me what I am. 

Mine, to chide me when I rove ; 
Mine, to show a Saviour's love ; 
Mine art thou to guide my feet ; 
Mine, to judge, condemn, acquit ! 

Mine, to comfort in distress, 
If the Holy Spirit bless ; 
Mine to show by living faith, 
Man can triumph over death. 

Mine to tell of joys to come, 
Of the rebel sinner' s doom ; 
O, thou precious Book divine ! 
Precious treasure ! thou art mine I" 

From Bridgewater he returned to Read- 
ing, (now South Reading,) and here spent 
the residue of his days. 



DEACON JACOB BATON. 49 

On his return he found an interesting 
revival of religion in progress. 

Lord's day evening meetings here, of 
which he in 1789 was one of the principal 
founders, as well as the week-day evening 
meetings for prayer, singing and conference, 
which four years after he assisted to estab- 
lish, he continued to attend and support 
for more than three score years. At these 
meetings he was ever one of the most con- 
stant attendants, and one of the ablest 
speakers. He not only " waited on exhor- 
tation," but he expounded the scriptures, 
frequently in a manner that would have 
done credit to any pastor of a church, and 
with that evident " simplicity and godly 
sincerity" that could not fail to make an 
impression on the mind of the hearer. 

In these meeting's he was emphatically 
" at home" — the acknowledged and the ac- 
ceptable leader of the meeting. He expa- 
tiated on the doctrine of Christ and the 
duties of his disciples. He drew from the 
varied treasures of his own experience and 
observation, and from the deeper treasures 
of divine inspiration, things profitable for 

reproof and instruction in righteousness. 
3 



50 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Here he pointedly and pathetically warn- 
ed the heedless sinner that the way of the 
transgressor was hard, and that his feet 
must ere long tl stumble on the dark moun- 
tains" of death and despair; while he 
pointed the trembling mourner to the 
" Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of 
the world." 

And here too, he poured out his soul in 
supplication and prayer to the God of all 
grace, for the influences of his Spirit and 
the blessings of his salvation. And truly, 
when does a poor mortal of Adam's race 
appear in a more dignified position than 
while standing like Abraham, or Moses, or 
Elijah, and pleading with the Lord Almigh- 
ty for the exercise of his compassion 
through the merits of the great Redeemer ? 

In 1798, as the Baptist Church in Wo- 
burn obtained a settled Pastor, Mr. Eaton, 
with his wife and several of his neighbors 
who were members of the Second Baptist 
Church in Boston, joined the Woburn 
Church, that being but half as far distant 
as Boston. 

The church in Woburn elected Mr. Eaton 
one of its deacons, in which office he con- 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 51 

tinued till the constitution of the Baptist 
Church in Reading (now South Reading) in 
January, 1804, when he became the first 
deacon of the latter church and so continu- 
ed during his life. 

In the Spring of 1801, in view of the 
general want of religious interest manifest- 
ed in the community, a meeting for humilia- 
tion, fasting and prayer was appointed 
March 10th, ( Note N.) at the dwelling-house 
of Dea. Eaton, 

" Prayer is the breath of God in man, 
Returning whence it came ; 
Love is the sacred fire within, 
And prayer the rising flame. 

The humble suppliant cannot fail 
To have his wants supplied, 
Since He for sinners intercedes, 
Who once for sinners died." 

At this meeting there were "great 
searchings of heart;" and there seemed 
poured out in an unusual degree, " the spirit 
of prayer and the grace of supplication." 

Before the end of a week, seven persons 
came forward, relating their religious ex- 
perience and desiring baptism; among 
whom was the Boston miller, who seven. 



52 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

years before) by mischievously letting off 
the waters of the Mill-Pond in Boston, 
where Mr. Baldwin was accustomed to 
baptize, had prevented the ordinance from 
being administered there, and driven the 
condidates to the waters of their native 
town for baptism. 

Another of the above seven persons, 
Miss G. S., had congregational parents. 
When she was gone to be baptized, her fa- 
ther was highly displeased with her con- 
duct, and expressed to his wife his feelings 
against the error and folly of the Baptists. 
To pacify him, his wife said, Mr. S. we will 
look over the New Testament and see if 
we can find any thing there in favor of the 
practice of the Baptists. The result of 
this investigation was very unexpected to 
herself. She became convinced that be- 
lievers' baptism by immersion, was what 
the New Testament taught. She accord- 
ingly left the Pedo-Baptist church, of which 
she was a member, and united with the 
Baptists. 

And indeed, to induce candid people to 
embrace our sentiments on baptism, we 
know of no better treatise on the subject 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 53 

to recommend to their perusal, than the 
New Testament* 

At the close of the year 1803, there was 
here, as well as in Maiden, Boston and 
some other towns, a remarkable revival of 
religion. This time of refreshing from the 
presence of the Lord, showed itself spec- 
ially in Boston in September of that year. 
Mr. Baldwin mentions, that on the 15th of 
that month, when his congregation was dis- 
missed, some forty or fifty remained in the 
house for prayers and conversation. 

*Dr. Stow remarks — " The preaching of Mr. White- 
field and others who had caught from Heaven the same 
hallowed fire, and the great awakening consequent 
upon their sanctified labors, gave currency to princi- 
ples which wrought undesigned changes, and conduct- 
ed to results that were neither anticipated nor desired. 

The converts who received the name of " Separates," 
were taught to throw aside tradition and take the 
Word of God only as their guide in all matters of re- 
ligious faith and practice. This was in perfect accord- 
ance with all Baptist teaching, and, as was predicted 
by the more sagacious among the opposers of the revi- 
val, ultimately led thousands, among whom were many 
ministers, to embrace our views and enter our church- 
es." And surely it is not a little extraordinary, 
that a denomination, which so recently as the time of 
Mr. Whitelield had in this whole country scarcely 
three thousand members, should now contain more 
than nine hundred thousand communicants. 



54 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

About four weeks after that time, there 
w^s a similar state of feeling in Maiden, — 
and at Reading, (now South Reading,) on 
the 28th and 29th of October, at meetings 
appointed for prayer and conference. This 
manifested itself in the extraordinary so- 
lemnity and anxiety of people, before irre- 
ligious and indifferent ; and in the unwont- 
ed fervor and earnestness of professors 
who spoke and prayed. 

In these meetings, Dea. Eaton took a 
prominent part — in conversing and praying 
with the distressed, in rejoicing with # the 
comforted, and in warning, counselling and 
instructing, as opportunity offered. 

In referring to this revival in his latter 
years, the Deacon stated that he had never 
in the course of his life witnessed any other 
season which so much resembled the effects 
produced upon the minds of people at the 
day of Pentecost. And why should we 
doubt that it was by the same power ? 

In January, 1804, the Baptist Church in 
Reading, (now South Reading,) having been 
regularly constituted and a Pastor elected, 
Dea, Eaton became the second officer in 
the church. His acquaintance with the 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 55 

Scriptures, sound judgment, ability and in- 
tegrity, made him resemble those " wise 
men of Ephraim" who " knew what Israel 
ought to do ;" and qualified him to act as 
a leading member in those cases of Church 
trial and discipline, which in this imperfect 
and probationary state must be met and 
decided. 

The office of Deacon was instituted to 
relieve from unnecessary cares those who 
labored in word and doctrine, and preserve 
harmony in the church. 

Good Deacons are of great value to the 
Church, and among the best aids of the 
ministry. 

The plan of government in Baptist 
Churches is highly democratic. The great 
Head of the Church having left his divine 
laws, each church as an independent body, 
is responsible only to its Head for the man- 
ner of administering these laws. In this 
important service, Dea. Eaton endeavored 
to act well his part as a church member 
and church officer, that the great Lawgiver 
might be honored in his disciples, and his 
Church might appear "first pure, and then 
peaceable." 



56 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Though he was willing to give his best 
counsel, he claimed no infallibility for his 
judgment; and in his old age he remarked 
to the writer, that should he live his life 
again, he thought he would pursue a some- 
what milder course of discipline than that 
which he had sometimes recommended; — 
would be disposed to bear longer with 
what were considered erring members, es- 
pecially where the errors were rather those 
of sentiment and judgment, than of temper 
and conduct. 

He was appointed standing moderator 
of church meetings in the Pastor's absence, 
and at their request, generally served as 
speaker when the church was destitute of 
a preacher. On such occasions the hearers 
have sometimes remarked, it was surpris- 
ing how a man could come from his shoe- 
shop, and the cares of a sick family, and 
discourse so interestingly on the Scriptures. 
One of these said to the writer, many years 
since, that while he much admired the abili- 
ty with which Dea. E. expounded and illus- 
trated Scripture, yet he was still more 
surprised at the remarkably modest and 
humble estimate which he made of his own 
performances. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 57 

In the revival of 1820, in which more 
than 60 persons in the town made a pro- 
fession of religion, Dea. Eaton had the 
happiness of seeing his oldest son turn to 
the Lord with purpose of heart. He adopt- 
ed the language of John, " I have no great- 
er joy than to see my children walk in the 
truth." 

In 1822, he was called to bury his eldest 
brother, Lilley Eaton, who was one of the 
two others baptized with him. These 
three friends had been particularly near to 
each other as pioneers of the denomination 
in their native town, and who, as such, had 
met and borne the reproach and obloquy 
cast upon them. He had the satisfaction 
of seeing that his brother died in the faith 
in which he had lived. He was taken with 
a fever and sick but eight days, and during 
much of this time deprived of his reason. 
A few minutes before his death he revived, 
his reason returned and he offered a short 
prayer, closing with these words : " Lord, 
revive thy work in this place. Make bare 
thine holy arm in the sight of all the peo- 
ple. May sinners be converted, and fear- 
fulness surprise tho hypocrite. I commit 
3* 



58 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

myself, O Lord, into thy hands, and all my 
numerous concerns, both for time and eter- 
nity. Amen." He then dropped away 
without uttering another word. 

It has been said that people generally 
die as they live ; and thus died this man of 
prayer. In his life he seemed never to 
" forget Jerusalem," — the Church, — but 
daily prayed for its enlargement, prefering 
Zion's prosperity " above his chief joy." 
If he heard of a revival of religion any- 
where, his sentiment was u bless the Lord, 
O my soul." It seemed to put " gladness" 
into his heart more than when "corn and 
wine were increased." When he returned 
from his city business, such news would be 
uppermost in his thoughts and elicit his 
warmest gratitude. Thus, living and dying, 
he " sought first the kingdom of God." 
May those who revere his memory duly 
consider these traits of true christian cha- 
racter. Soon, 

" All arts, and knowledges beside, 
Will do us little good." 

" For there was light within my soul, 
Light on my peaceful way, 
And all around the blue above 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 59 

The clustering starlight lay ; 

And easterly I saw upreared 

The pearly gates of day. 

And even through the rifled clouds, 

Shines out one steady star, — 

For when my guide went up, he left 

The pearly gates ajar." 

In 1837, Dea. Eaton was called to part 
with the wife of his youth, with whom he 
had been united more than forty years. 
During much of this time she was afflicted 
with sickness and weakness, and often con- 
fined to her room and bed. The patience, 
care and kindness with which he for so 
many years succored and waited upon his 
enfeebled companion, were truly praise- 
worthy, and exhibited him as an amiable 
husband and strong friend. 

•' Cheerful I leave this vale of tears, 
Where pains and sorrow grow ; 
Welcome the day that ends my toil, 
And every scene of woe. 

Immortal wonders ! boundless things ! 
In those dear worlds appear ; 
Uriel, bear me on thy wings, 
And mount my spirit there." 

Dea. Eaton had a wife and seven chil- 
dren depending on his industry. His life 



60 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

was that of a laborious farmer and mechan- 
ic. His "hands ministered to his necessi- 
ties." He quitted not his shoe-bench till 
he was in the 78th year of his age. 

At times he might have said with Jacob 
of old, when " in the day the drought con- 
sumed him and the frost by night," — "my 
sleep departed from mine eyes." 

With a small income, he provided for his 
invalid companion and children, and con- 
tributed of his labors to support the gos- 
pel, — leaving behind the reputation of an 
industrious and honest man. 

It was the appointment of the Creator 
that man should " eat bread by the sweat 
of his face." Christ submitted to manual 
labor; — was obedient to the divine allot- 
ment and "fulfilled all righteousness." 

It is a righteous sentence that we should 
labor and toil, and in the end is rendered 
a blessing. Probably on the whole, a man 
would neither enjoy more, nor do more 
good, if not required to labor at all for his 
support for eighty years, than did Dea. E. 

The history of the world shows that 
mankind have too little virtue to bear well 
great prosperity. " They -that will be rich 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 61 

fall into temptation and a snare, and into 
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown 
men in destruction and perdition/' 

Christ set an example of reconciliation 
to poverty; having "not where to lay his 
head," while he was performing the work 
his heavenly Father gave him to do. 

Pious, conscientious persons often have 
little property, because they are unwilling 
to follow those pursuits, or adopt those 
means, which others take to obtain Avealth; 
and because they feel it a duty to lay out 
for benevolent objects, what others lay up 
to accumulate. Christ said, " lay not up 
for yourselves treasures on earth;" — a 
command which often seems almost as 
wholly forgotten, as though it were not 
found in the Bible. 

Not that people should ever be reconcil- 
ed to indolence, or improvidence ; — not 
that they may not labor in an honest and 
productive occupation, if they will lay out 
the avails of their industry to help the un- 
fortunate poor, and to promote benevolent 
objects, instead of laying up on earth "can- 
kered" gold and silver, "'the rust" of 
which shall prove "witness against them." 



62 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

The requisitions of the gospel seem de- 
signed to make man feel as a stranger and 
a pilgrim here, seeking a better country ; 
=and while on his journey, assisting his fel- 
low travellers ; laying out for God on 
€arth, and laying up for himself treasures 
in heaven. 

11 1 wonder if the rich man prays — 
And how his morning prayer is said ; 
He'll ask for health and length of days — 
But does he ask for " daily bread }" 

When at his door in posture meek, 
He sees the poor man waiting stand, 
With sunken eye and care-worn cheek, 
To beg employment from his hand : 

And when he tells his piteous tale 
Of sickly wife and children small ; 
Of rents that rise, and crops that fail, 
And troubles that the poor befall. 

I wonder if the rich man's thought 
Mounts free as nature's hymn to heaven, 
In gratitude that happier lot, 
By Providence, to him is given ? 

And does his heart exult to know, 
He too, like Heaven, hath power to give ? 
To strengthen weakness, soften woe, 
And bid hope's dying lamp revive?" 

Tliis same year, (1837,) Dea. E. buried 



DEACON JAC9B EATON. 63 

his youngest son, who had previously pro- 
fessed his hope in the Gospel and united 
with the church. The serenity with which 
this young man, in the morning of life, left 
his consort and little infant, was a great 
consolation to his parents. 

11 Friends of my youth, I have witnessed your bloom ! 
Shades of the dead, I have wept at your tomb ; 
Ye, who have hither so hastily fled, 
Say, is there room in the green curtained bed ? 

Souls of the blest, from the mansions of day, 
Look on the pilgrim and lighten his way ; 
"Wing your swift flight to the death prepared bed, 
With visions of glory to circle his head. 

Stars, ye are thick in the pathway of light ; 
Visions of bliss, ye are banishing night ; 
Pilgrim arise — for the journey you tread 
Is leading to regions whence sorrow has fled." 

In 1838, Dea. Eaton married Mrs. Eunice 
Eaton, who still survives him. 

As Dea. E. had several turns of sickness 
in which both he and his friends believed 
he would not recover, it may be well to 
give some view of the state of his mind at 
those times. 

In February, 1848, he had a pleurisy and 
lung fever. I saw him several times dur- 



64 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

ing this illness. He said lie had no dis- 
tressing fears for the future. He knew 
not but he might as well leave the world 
then as at any time. His feelings prepon- 
derated in favor of going then, rather than 
to recover and wait longer. He did not 
feel that he should become more fit to die 
by living longer. 

At another time when I called, he said, 
"Why should I wish to live longer?" 

It is true, as Dr. Watts says — 

" And if to eighty we arrive, 
We rather sigh and groan, than live." 

He inquired about the weather, remark- 
ing it was all snow the last time he looked 
out the window. 

One present remarked, there was a land 

U Where everlasting spring abides, 
And never withering flowers." 

He immediately added — 

" Only a narrow stream divide's, 
This heavenly land from ours." 

The narrow stream of death. 

Visitor — When Bunyan's pilgrim was 
crossing this narrow stream, his companion, 
by way of encouraging his hope, said, u Be 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 65 

of good cheer my brother ; I feel the bottom 
and it is good." 

Dea. E. — Ah, Bunyan was very ingeni- 
ous. 

V. — He has grown much wiser since. 

Dea. E. — Doubtless. 

V. — No doubt Moses and Elias have had 
many interesting conversations, but we 
have never heard of but one of these, — 
that on the Mount of Transfiguration. 

Dea. E. — Yes; they then talked of 
Christ's death, which he should accomplish 
at Jerusalem; — a most interesting subject 
to them, as all their hopes of salvation had 
rested on this. 

V. — Mr. Baldwin enjoyed life and use- 
fulness to the last, departing as it were in 
his full strength. 

Dea. E. — Y^es ; he ascended the stairs 
to rest, and next ascended to mansions in 
the skies, his endless rest. As to leaving 
this poor body, Jesus can watch my dust 
when in the grave as well as now ; and per- 
haps I can watch it then as well as now. 

11 My flesh shall slumber in the ground 
'Till the last trumpet's joyful sound, 
Then burst the chains -with glad surprise, 
And in my Saviour's image rise." 



66 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Dm. E. — My daughters have come to 
see me. 

V. — I am glad they have. 

Dea. E. — It is a great satisfaction to 
have my children visit me at this time. 

When his eldest daughter arrived he 

said, " R , you have come to see your 

poor father die." 

To Mr. ft. P. E., he said, " you will all 
soon be called to follow my remains to 
their last resting place." 

His mind seemed perfectly calm and col- 
lected, and he appeared like an intelligent 
and good man, meeting his last enemy as it 
becomes a man and a christian to do. 

I saw him on Lord's day, 4th of March. 
He spoke of the great number of good 
persons that were constantly gathering in 
heaven ; and the blessedness of that place 
where the wicked would be separated from 
among the just ; — how different from this 
world, where it is often impossible to avoid 
being annoyed by the vicious and abandon- 
ed. 

He spoke of kind, sympathizing friends ; 
and seemed overcome, and wept at the idea 
of so many persons calling to inquire after 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 67 

him, and being so ready to serve him, 
watch with him, &c. 

He inquired if I was going to meeting, 
and said, " the Lord be with you." 

I saw him on Monday, and he said the 
doctor gave him encouragement of getting 
about again : — that it was quite unexpected 
to him. I replied, perhaps your work is 
not done yet. He said he did not feel 
that he could do much. 

He slowly arose from this turn of illness 
but never regained his former strength. 

In the commencement of the year 1850, 
Rev. D. W. Phillips became Pastor of the 
Baptist Church in South Reading. As this 
event seemed to augur well for the pros- 
perity of the church, Dea. E. took great 
pleasure in it. 

He was particularly comforted in seeing 
the church in so much harmony in his last 
years, and in having a Pastor in whose la- 
bors and deportment he felt so much satis- 
faction. He had, for more than half a cen- 
tury, felt almost a paternal interest in the 
growth and development of this little vine. 
He had watched over it, sympathized in its 
trials and rejoiced in its joys, and when 



6*8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

about to leave it in apparent prosperity, 
he said, " Now Lord, lettest thou thy ser- 
vant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
.seen thy salvation." Long had he felt — 

•"I love thy kingdom, Lord, 
The house of thine abode, 
The Church our blest Redeemer saved 
With his own precious blood. 

For her my tears shall fall ; 
For her my prayers ascend; 
To her my cares and toils be given, 
Till cares and toils shall end." 

In the Autumn of 1850, Dea. E. reeeived 
;an invitation from the Baldwin Place Bap- 
tist Church in Boston, to attend a meeting 
of aged professors, (of 50 years old or 
more,) who were, or had been, members of 
that church. He was present and took a 
great interest in the gathering. 

Fifty-six years before, he, with two 
others, one of whom (Dea. David Smith) 
was now with him, came down to be bap- 
tized by Elder Baldwin, at the baptizing 
pond adjoining the meeting-house. 

The Lord had spared the lives of these 
aged brethren to meet again at the place, 
where, more than half a century before, 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 69 

they had stood and told what they believ- 
ed the Lord had done for them ; and now, 
at nearly the age of four score, they again 
met to " remember all the way the Lord 
had led them these forty years." 

Here, aged pilgrims who had not seen 
each other's faces for 30 or 40 years, met 
again and greeted each other, no doubt for 
the last time this side their final home. 

While going to Baldwin Place, Dea. E. 
remarked that he hoped the meeting would 
have at least some faint resemblance of 
that blessed gathering in Heaven, where 
old acquaintance would be so joyfully re- 
newed, and that too without any thought 
of separation. And at the following com- 
munion season, he said of this interview, 
that it was such a meeting as he had never 
witnessed before and never expected to 
again this side of Heaven. 

I could but feel that his life had been 
lengthened these two last years, since he 
was brought so near the grave, to enjoy 
this happy and refreshing meeting on earth. 

It was remarked to him, how such and 
such brethren and sisters, whom he used to 
know, (and who had years since gone to 



70 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

their rest,) would enjoy this meeting if they 
could be here. Why, said he, how do you 
know but they are here, or at least that 
they know of and enjoy this happy season ? 
This idea was farther extended by one 
of the brethren, who referred to the meet- 
ing of Moses and Elijah on the Mount, f 
(Tabor,) where Elijah had before enjoyed 
special intercourse with heaven. 

" Sweet is the thought, the promise sweet, 
That friends, long severed friends, shall meet; 
That kindred who on earth disjoined, 
Shall meet — from earthly dross refined, 
Their mortal cares and sorrows o'er — 
And mingle hearts to part no more." 

Dea. E. arose in the assembly, and very 
feelingly referred to former scenes, when 
he first visited this church while under the 
pastorate of the beloved and revered 
Baldwin — a name which all present seemed 
delighted to honor. (Note O.J 

On the whole, I could not but regard 
this as one of the happiest days of Dea r 
E.'s life. He was about to put off the ar- 
mour which he had worn so well far so 
many years. By an eye of faith he was 
looking upward to the rewards of the 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 71 

faithful. "At evening time there was light ; 
his path was shining brighter and brighter,' 7 
He could now say, " Hitherto hath God 
helped me. And the blessed " land of pro- 
mise" was now the " land that was not very 
jar off. 11 

How joyful the change when the decrepi- 
tude of age shall be succeeded by the free- 
dom, buoyancy, immortal youth and angelic 
bloom of Heaven; — for spirits made per- 
fect in purity, and bodies "fashioned like 
Christ's glorious body." 

The following notice of the meeting, is 
from the Watchman fy Reflector of October^ 
1850:— 



THE BALDWIN PLACE FESTIVAL. 

This meeting, so far as our acquaintance 
extends the first of the kind ever held in 
this section of the country, took place on 
Wednesday, 2d inst., in the vestry of the 
Baldwin Place church. Something more 
than three hundred persons, either present 
or former members, who were above fifty 
years of age, together with the pastors of" 
the churches in the city and some others, 
attended. It was a novel and interesting 



72 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

spectacle, to witness the meeting of per- 
sons who, in some instances, had separated 
forty years before, and to hear the excla- 
mations of surprise at the changes which 
those years had wrought upon them. They 
had gone out in their early prime. They 
now returned stooping under the burden of 
their years. There was the disciple whom 
sixty-four years ago Dr. Skillman had led 
into the baptismal waters, the •representa- 
tive of the two generations behind us. 
Others were there who had been of the 
flock of the loved and early lamented Gair 
— while many more came down to us as the 
fruits of the labors of the venerated Bald- 
win. Prominent among these were his wi- 
dow, now advanced to a good old age, and 
his only surviving child, Mrs. Holt, of Gro- 
ton. At the call of this mother church, 
children came obedient not only from the 
neighboring churches and adjacent cities, 
but from the distant sections of Pennsyl- 
vania, and even from the still farther dis- 
tant section of Illinois. Here, around the 
cradle of their infancy, and in the spot of 
their religious nativity, those met who had 
for years anticipated such a privilege only 
on the opposite side of Jordan, and the 
sight of each other seemed to make them 
young again. Those tongues which age and 
grief had for a long time bound, were loos- 
ed, while they described the path through 
which the Lord had led them. 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. <cJ 

After some time had been spent in mu- 
tual recognition and general conversation, 
devotional exercises were proposed, and 
the hymn, " When I can read,'' etc., conse- 
crated in the minds of many by the remem- 
brance of Baldwin's partiality to it, and 
the old " Mear tune,' 7 as he was wont to 
call it, was sung by a full choir. It seemed 
as if they were just ready to go over the 
river, and enter upon the purchased pos- 
session. One could hardly forget that of 
those who had once lifted up their voices 
together to these words on this hallowed 
spot, 

" Part of that host had crossed the flood, 
And part were crossing now." 

Every thing in the scene and its associa- 
tions brought the entire company " quite 
on the verge of heaven." It was good to 
be there. A letter was read from Rev. Dr. 
Ripley, excusing his absence, in which he 
says, "It is now just thirty-three years 
since I became a member of Baldwin Place 
church, having been baptized by Dr. Bald- 
win, the first Sabbath in October, 1817. 
My parents were members, in the days of 
Mr. Gair; all their children who arrived 
at maturity, six in number, became mem- 
bers. Their two sons are ministers of the 
gospel. Two of their daughters are mar- 
ried to ministers. The husband of another 
4 



74 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

daughter frequently ministers in word and 
doctrine in public assemblies, and in vari- 
ous other important ways has been serving 
the cause of Christ. Of their grand-chil- 
dren, sixteen have been baptized as follow- 
ers of Christ, two of whom are preparing 
for the ministry.'' It closes with the ut- 
terance of the beautiful and pious senti- 
ment : " The Baldwin Place Baptist church 
— Peace be within thy walls &nd prosperity 
within thy palaces. For my brethren and 
companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace 
be within thee." 

These exercises were followed by a brief 
address from Dr. Tucker, as pertinent as 
it was excellent, in which he holds the fol- 
lowing language : 

After years of separation and painful 
toil you now meet again. But O how 
changed. You went out from your people 
and from this sanctuary where yourselves 
and your fathers worshipped, flushed with 
hope, inflamed with z&aJL, and governed by 
noble purposes and desires to do good 
abroad. Many of you were then young, 
the glow of health was upon your cheek, 
and the vigor of manhood in your frame. 
But after twenty, thirty, forty years, you 
have returned again to-day. The light is 
now dim in your eye, the flush has faded 
from your face, the elasticity is gone from 
your step, time has frosted your heads, 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 75 

palsied your limbs, and ploughed your 
cheeks with its furrows. But, blessed be 
God, you are here, though time has dealt 
hardly with you, and death has made sad 
havoc among your comrades since you last 
met in this place. 

Pointing to the portraits which were 
suspended before them, he reminded them 
of the sainted Baldwin, the eloquent and 
lamented Stillman, by whose side he labor- 
ed, the faithful and devoted Winchell, and 
the pure and classic Knowles — men to whom 
our denomination in New England owe a 
debt, not easily reckoned and never to be 
repaid. A just and eloquent tribute was 
paid to Rev. Dr. Sharp, as the one present 
to-day, a survivor of those men, after forty 
years of labor, still wearing his armor, still 
foremost in the fight. The church were 
reminded that he had buried two of their 
pastors — had witnessed the pastorate of 
fifteen years of their successor, and now 
for two years the commencement of the 
fourth, and after all this, his eye is not 
dimmed nor his ear dulled, the blood sleeps 
not in his veins, nor are his muscles with- 
ered upon his limbs. 

To this allusion to himself, Dr. S. re- 
sponded in a very happy manner, testifying; 
his acquaintance with that good man whose- 
friendship it had been his good fortune to- 
enjoy. The first shadow that fell upon that 



16 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

acquaintance was the event which terminat- 
ed it. The remembrance was not marred 
by one unpleasant thought. Among the 
incidents which he related of Dr. Baldwin, 
as unfolding his characteristics, was one 
evincing at once his shrewdness and his ex- 
ceedingly kind good nature. The Dr. once 
riding along in his carriage, met a teamster 
of a sulky disposition, who was inclined to 
use the advantage which his heavier vehicle 
gave him, and refused to take one side of 
the road, which at that spot was quite nar- 
row. The Dr. came to a stand-still and 
looking at the fellow, said — 

" Sir, if you do not get out of my way I 
will serve you as I did a man a few days 
ago." 

" How was that," said the teamster. 

"I got out of his way," was the ready 
and good-natured reply. 

Dr. Baldwin would at any time sooner 
give the entire road than engage in a quar- 
rel. 

When Dr. Sharp had concluded his re- 
marks, the pastor stated that fifty-six years 
ago there came three tall young men from 
a distance of ten miles in the country, re- 
questing baptism and admission with the 
Second church. The rite was to be per- 
formed after the morning service, in the 
Mill-Pond, which then laved the foundations 
of the house. A miller who owed the 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 77 

Baptists a hearty grudge, and was eager to 
inflict his spite upon them, staid away from 
his own meeting that he might drain the 
pond. The baptism could not be perform- 
ed, and the young men requested that it 
might be administered in the pond at 
South Reading. The Doctor consented, 
and in the face of threats of personal vio- 
lence, celebrated for the first time in those 
waters, which have since been styled the* 
Enon of that vicinity, the ordinance of 
baptism. The wrath of the miller dissem- 
inated the truth, and was made an occasion 
of the founding of a church in South Read- 
ing. He himself, afterwards residing in 
that place, was, through the preaching of a 
Baptist minister, convinced of singconvert- 
ed, and afterwards, like Saul, supported 
the faith which he once destroyed. Two 
of those three tall young men are present. 

Dea. J. Eaton, of South Reading, arose, 
and after expressing his great delight in 
the present meeting, gave some account of 
the state of religion at the time when the 
above circumstances occurred. 

Rev. Dr. Xeale said that he could not 
consent to regard the interest of this oc- 
casion exclusively local. It was a genuine 
expression ot that family feeling which the 
Baptists had in old time cherished. He 
could remember the days, when a Baptist 
was sure to find a welcome and a home in 



78 LIFE AND TIMES OF 



« 



any Baptist family. He had not forgotten 
the meeting, although he was at the time a 
mere boy, when in the town in Connecticut 
in which his father lived, Dr. Baldwin, ac- 
companied by Rev. Mr. Paul, came and 
passed the Sabbath, and the interest that 
was aroused by the announcement that 
they had come all the way from Boston, 
and were going to preach. He delighted 
in the scene around him, and trusted that 
it would augment this ancient family feeling. 

Rev. Dr. Church, from the recollections 
which gathered around this hour, would 
urge all to a holier and warmer zeal in the 
cause of Christ. 

Remarks were offered also by Rev. Mr. 
Porter, gf Lowell, stating that the place of 
his nativity was almost under the shadow 
of this church, that in her assemblies he 
had first learned the path to life, that the 
man is to-day present whose words were, 
in his heart, as nails fastened in a sure 
place, and the man is also here who first 
encouraged him to speak of the love of 
Jesus. Whatever good shall result from 
my ministry will be accomplished through 
him. 

Dea. Lincoln on being called up by an 
allusion to his labors, as an early Superin- 
tendent of the Sabbath School, said that 
toward this church he must always cherish 
<a peculiar feeling. It was the church of 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 7fl 

his first love. Fifty-one years ago, lie, with 
his brother, Ensign Lincoln, was baptized 
by that good man who had been often al- 
luded to. He should always, in the brief 
remainder of life, pray for and delight in 
its prosperity. 

Dea. Wilbur added to the expressions of 
interest in this church a powerful exhorta- 
tion to look beyond men. He loved Bald- 
win, Knowles, and all of his pastors. Be 
well remembered how like a knell the tid- 
ings of the death of the former sounded— 
and how his courage awhile drooped. But 
the same voice that asked the Galileans 
why they stood gazing into the heavens, 
bade him look beyond the watchman, and 
trust in God. He loved them not for what 
nature made them, but for the image which 
grace had stamped upon their minds. 

The entire company united in the good 
old hymn, composed by Baldwin — "From 
whence doth this union arise," and in pray- 
er with Rev. Mr. Parsons, who had travel- 
ed four hundred miles to comply with the 
invitation to attend this festival. 

The arrangements were admirable, and 
displayed an equal taste and generosity. 
The tables, loaded with enough that could 
delight the eye or the palate, showed that 
the Baldwin Place church were as capable 
of executing as of originating. Every 
thing passed off not only to the satisfac* 



80 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

tion, but to the great delight of all con- 
cerned. It is some temptation to wish to 
live another fifty years just to share in 
another such festival. 

In the winter of 1852, Dea. E. had a fe- 
ver and his life was dispaired of. I asked 
him if he felt near the end of his pilgrim- 
age. He said life was always precarious. 
It looked now as if he could not stay long. 
It seemed to him that the Lord was about 
to take down his tabernacle. He said 
God's time was the best. For himself he 
was neither anxious to live nor afraid to 
die. He trusted he knew whom he had 
believed. He relied alone on the merits 
of Christ. He felt that God was good and 
he leaned on his arm. As I left him, he 
took my hand and said, « Peace be with 
you." He repeated these lines of Watts : 

•• Our journey is a thorny maze, 
Yet we march upward still, 
Forget the trials of the way 
And reach at Zion's hill." 

He recovered from this indisposition. 

In the spring of 1855, Dea. E. buried his 
associate in church-office, Dea. David Smith, 
very near his own age, after a sickness of 
a few days. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 81 

Our motto on the title page speaks of 
u James, Cephas and John, who seemed to 
be pillars/' in the first christian church ; 
and thus seemed during their lives, Lilley 
Eaton, Jacob Eaton and David Smith in the 
Baptist Church in this place. Their breth- 
ren were willing to regard them as David's 
"first three." They were the first baptized 
and were subsequently united in sentiment 
and effort. One was most able as a speak- 
er, one as a scribe and one had most of 
this world's goods to help " build the 
house of the Lord." 

But the forming of a Baptist Church in 
South Reading was no part of their origi- 
nal design. They indeed, after they in- 
dulged hope in Christ, tried to be recon- 
ciled to pedo-baptists' views and practice ; 
but finding, as conscientious men, they 
could not, they next sought to satisfy their 
consciences by uniting in a still and quiet 
way with the Baptists in Boston. And 
when in this disappointed, they seemed 
driven to receive baptism in their native 
town; which event proved the means of 
calling the attention of other young per- 
sons to their spiritual interests, and led to 
4* 



82 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

the founding of a Baptist church here. 
Thus these three individuals, with others 
who afterwards united with them, originat- 
ed Lord's-day and week-day evening prayer 
and conference meetings, a Baptist church, 
and Sabbath School for instructing the 
young, none of which had previously exist- 
ed in the place. 

The eldest of these three brethren, Lil- 
ley Eaton, died in 1822, at the age of 54 
years; Dea. David Smith died in 1855, in 
his 84th year. " When shall these three 
meet again V ' 

" When the dreams of life have fled, 
When its wasted lamps are dead, 
When in cold oblivion's shade, 
Beauty, wealth and fame are laid,; 
Where immortal spirits reign, 
There may these three meet again." 

In the closing week of December, 1857, 
Dea, Eaton was again ill, — could not arise 
irom his chair or stand alone. 

I saw him December 31st, He express- 
ed in a manner I had not heard him before, 
his willingness and even desire to leave 
this world; that he looked forward with 
satisfaction to the time when " his infirm 



DEACON JACOB EATON\ 83 

body would be laid under the turf of the 
grave-yard." He seemed to feel that he 
had lived life out, that there was nothing 
to invite his longer abode here below. 

January 4th, 1858 — when I was sitting 
by him, I felt his pulse and remarked they 
were some weaker than last week. He 
said, "perhaps they have nearly finished.'' 
I replied, " well, you are willing it should 
be so ?" He answered, " yes, I shall 
then go to the blessed Redeemer." 

He lifted his hands and spoke with un- 
usual animation of the wonderful love of 
the Savior — " unbeginning and unending 
love ! " 

He said he felt very calm, but desired 
me to pray that he might have a more live- 
ly view of spiritual things, and feel the 
love of Christ afresh shed abroad in his< 
heart. 

Reference was made to the great High 
Priest who has passed into the Heavens, 
and yet can be touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities. It was remarked that even 
in the fear which almost all mortals feel in 
approaching the great change of death, 
Christ could sympathize with human beings, 



84 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

for he had experienced a distressing fear 
before his decease, as the Apostle says of 
his prayer at that time, " He was heard in 
that he feared." " An angel was sent to 
strengthen him." This seemed a wonder- 
ful conformity and sympathy with our na- 
tures and condition. 

Allusion also was had to the ministry of 
angels, who not only encamp about the 
saints in their earthly lives, but watch the 
moment of the liberation of their spirits 
and convoy them to the abodes of rest. 

An opinion was expressed that a liber- 
ated spirit and its angel could at once con- 
verse together intelligibly; and Deacon 
Emerson's dream was related, namely: — 
He dreamed that an appointment was made 
by the Church of which he was a member, 
to meet on a specified evening and sing 
with a party of angels. 

The Deacon saw in his dream that the 
brethren and sisters of the church were all 
in their seats at the time appointed, wait- 
ing the striking of the hour when the angels 
would join their assembly. 

In the interval a question arose in his 
mind, how their voices could chord with 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 85 

angel voices; and while he was puzzling on 
this problem, the clock struck, — the vacant 
seats were instantly filled with angels, and 
as the angelic chorister struck a tune, every 
voice in the room was in rapturous har- 
mony- with it, and the pealing celestial 
notes that then rang through the hall 
aroused the good Deacon from his slumbers 
in such an ecstasy of delight as he never 
afterwards forgot. 

Dea. Eaton soon recovered from the 
above illness and was about again. The 
physician remarked that Dea, E.'s great 
calmness and resignation in his fits of sick- 
ness had*a strong tendency to promote his 
restoration tp his usual health. 

During his last years he was generally 
able to attend religious meetings in the 
day time, and we have repeatedly seen him, 
like the patriarch of old, literally " lean- 
ing on the top of his staff," as he stood to 
make a short address or prayer. 

He was much interested in the " great 
revival" of 1858; attended, spoke and 
prayed in some of the prayer and confer- 
ence meetings, and mentioned it as a great 
privilege that his life was prolonged to 



86 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

witness such a wonderful work of grace. 

He went into a prayer meeting in the 
Spring of 1859, saying that he wished to 
be present at one more of these meetings 
before he departed ; and it proved the last 
of such meetings that he attended — seven- 
ty years after he had been a principal indi- 
vidual to establish and support them, and 
more than forty years after our Sabbath 
School and Bible Classes commenced, in 
which he had long acted as teacher. 

And now " the time drew near that Jacob 
must die," 

The last record he made in his diary was 
the following : — 

"Saturday, May 14*A, 1859. — Brother 
Noah Smith dropped down dead in Boston, 
yesterday, aged 84 years." 

" Lord's-day, May 15th. — Bro. Phillips 
preached from 2d Timothy, 1 : 10, i Who 
hath abolished death and brought life and 
immortality to light through the gospel.' 
Bro. Noah Smith buried." 

This was the last meeting and the last 
funeral that he attended — just two weeks 
before his own funeral. 

He walked home with some difficulty, 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 87 

2ind fell near the threshold of his own door. 

He seemed considerably affected with 
the sudden decease of a brother so near 
his own age, and who had been a member 
in the same church with him more than fifty 
years. 

I saw him on Wednesday, May 18th, and 
though sitting up in his chair, he said to 
me with some emphasis, "I am falling." 

When I inquired if he was not willing to 
be failing, he did not object, but desired to 
have patience to bear pain and weakness. 
I repeated the passage, " My flesh and my 
heart faileth, but God is the strength of 
my heart and my portion forever." He 
added, " How gracious, what more can any 
one wish for ? " ■ 

He sat up but little during his remaining 
days. 

It was particularly grateful to him that 
his eldest daughter was present to attend 
him, and he spoke of his two sons who 
had been with him in his illnesses, as ex- 
cellent nurses. 

He repeated to several who called upon 
him, his entire reconciliation to the divine 
purpose, whether to go now or to remain 



88 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

some longer in the world. He wished not 
to choose, but to refer the question to infi- 
nite wisdom; and as he lay laboring to 
breathe, he repeatedly prayed audibly for 
support to wait patiently all the days of 
his appointed time. 

One day, when his Pastor visited him, 
he inquired how it was with his spirit, and 
the Deacon replied, "I agreed with the 
Lord a great many years ago, that he might 
govern his own universe and dispose of all 
his creatures so as to please himself, and I 
am not going to draw back now." 

In his last sickness he could not talk 
much without an exhausting effort, and this 
seemed the less necessary as he had borne 
his testimony so well during so long a life. 

He remarked to his daughter one day, 
that he had thought it would he a happy 
thing if he could go to heaven in company 
with a number of others — a " platoon" of 
redeemed spirits together. 

He said he had wished to live so as not 
to appear a stranger when he arrived in 
heaven. 

Though his comfortable hope and faith 
and confidence in God never forsook him. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 89 

yet he constantly preserved a strong sense 
of the magnitude and solemnity of the 
change before him. He repeated to me a 
few days before his departure, the impres- 
sive words of the Poet, " It is not all of 
death to die." And he remarked to ano- 
ther that he wished he had more evidence 
of his acceptance with God ; feeling that 
the human heart was very deceitful, and 
there were many ways in which a person 
might deceive himself. 

He spoke to Mrs. B. of the wonderful 
change of death, and the realities and so- 
lemnities following it, and how often he 
had meditated on these, and wondered 
about them; then raising both his hands, 
he said with much emotion and solemnity, 
"And now I must meet them all!" But 
he calmly and hopefully submitted his case 
to God without any exultation in his pros- 
pects. 

For some time his main tie to this life 
seemed to be his desire to assist his blind 
and infirm companion; and in his sickness 
he seemed averse to speaking much about 
leaving her, lest the subject should distress 
her. 



90 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

One day when she repeated the stanza— 

<4 Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone, 
Him will I go and see, 
And all my brethren here below 
Will soon come after me." 

Yes.-, he said, and inquired if she did not 
wish to go with him. 

The day but one before his decease, see- 
ing his wife sitting at the foot of the bed, 
as he awaked, he looked kindly at her and 
said faintly, " Mother, are you here ? " 

She was then conducted to the bed side, 
when he put out his hand and tenderly tak- 
ing hers, inquired how she was. 

When his Pastor, on leaving him, ex- 
pressed his hope that he should see him 
again, he replied, u do not detain me." 

Friday morning, May 27 th, he knew his 
children as they came into the room, until 
about 9 o'clock. 

When the clock struck nine he inquired, 
" what o'clock is that ? " This was his last 
question. 

About 10 o'clock I spoke to him and in- 
quired if he knew me. He said distinctly, 
" No." This was his last answer. 

His eves now remained closed during 



# DEACON JACOB EATON. 91 

the day, and he seemed evidently dying. 

It appeared doubtful whether he had 
much consciousness after 11 o'clock, A.M.; 
but he continued as above mentioned till 
near 8 o'clock, P.M., when he ceased to 
breathe, in the 88th year of his age. 

On Lord's-day, May 29th, the funeral 
services of Dea. Eaton were attended at 
the Baptist church. Rev. D. W. Phillips 
delivered an appropriate and impressive 
address to the largest assembly we recol- 
lect to have witnessed on such an occasion 
in this town. 

The following is an extract from the 
above address : — 

"I knew Dea. Eaton 27 years ago, when 
he was little past sixty. 

The young men at the Academy were 
agreed in the opinion that he was much 
such a man, both as to his bodily presence 
and mental characteristics, as the patriarch 
Abraham when he tended his flocks on the 
hills of Canaan. That impression has 
grown stronger with me till the present 
time. 

I also then, and have ever since associ- 



92 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

ated him with Andrew Fuller. The frames 
of both were massive and heavy, the fea- 
tures large and open and the qualities of 
the mind also were not unlike. 

I have some remembrance of the confer- 
ence meetings when I first knew Deacon 
Eaton; and my conviction is that there 
were then many good speakers, as there 
have been ever since, yet I have retained 
no distinct impression of any one, except 
Dea. Eaton. Even that made by the Pas- 
tor to whom I listened every week with 
considerable interest, is not as vivid. It 
was my opinion then, and I have not chang- 
ed it since, that with the exception of a 
very few professional speakers, I never 
have heard his equal. 

I was always delighted to see him get 
up, for he was of goodly port, — not beau- 
tiful, but a person that one would never 
tire to look at ; yet more was I pleased to 
see him stand up, because I expected some 
thing worth hearing and remembering ; for 
he was accustomed to speak of excellent 
things, and the opening of his lips were 
right things. He obviously spoke, not 
from the impulse of the moment, but from 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 93 

careful pre-meditation. The particular 
speech may not have been formally studied, 
but what he uttered had been thoroughly 
digested in his own mind and heart. 

His addresses had a beginning, middle 
and end to them. They were also new and 
fresh, and not wearisome repetitions of 
worn-out thoughts. 

He spoke because he had something to 
say, and he had always something worth 
saying laid up among his treasures. 

His mind was exceedingly well disciplin- 
ed, though he was but slenderly indebted 
to schools or to books. 

The culture of his mind was preeminent- 
ly scriptural, and considerably Jewish, for 
he was much more at home than ordinary 
men, yea, ordinary ministers, in the Old 
Testament. 

For a man who spoke so much as he did, 
the almost exhaustless variety of his ad- 
dresses was very remarkable ; and this pe- 
culiarity was often referred to with wonder 
by the students. There can be no doubt 
that he has influenced for good many min- 
isters of the gospel. 

The chief characteristics of his public 



94 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

speaking, were weight and solemnity. His 
voice was just what might be expected 
from such abroad, round chest — it was 
deep and sonorous. His thoughts flowed 
from him, not like a mountain torrent, nor 
by leaps and starts, but like a river with a 
broad and free channel. There was no de- 
clamation nor coruscations, but thought, — 
much thought, warm and living. 

His religious interest did not appear to 
be fed by occasional showers, but by the 
upper and nether springs. He was often 
truly eloquent — if to impress and to move 
be criterions of eloquence. 

He grasped with great strength and 
clearness some of the mightiest elements 
of the new life, and they were to him not 
thoughts merely r but the felt powers of the 
world to come. They were wrought into 
his experience. 

The foundation of all was the profound 
and solemn conviction ever resting with 
great weight on his soul, of the infinite 
majesty and supreme and unlimited sove- 
reignty of God, who has the right to, and 
in fact does, dispose of angels and men ac- 
cording to his infinitely wise and holy 
pleasure. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 95 

His great thought, or sense, or convic- 
tion which principally made him what he 
was, was his entire accountability to God. 
It is not my purpose to eulogize the good 
man that is just gone from us, but to mag- 
nify the grace of the Lord toward him, 
and the Church through him. 

God called him by his grace and gave 
him to this church. And this church is 
much indebted to him for its high intellec- 
tual stamp. 

# 4f # X -Jf * 

Sons and daughters of Deacon Eaton, do 
you know, do you realize what a father you 
have had ? 

If you do, happy are you. For the word 
of the Lord says that a good name is rath- 
er to be chosen than great riches, and all 
that name without any incumbrance he has 
left for you. You cannot attain to any re- 
nown on earth, which the knowledge of 
your father's character would not render 
more illustrious. 

If you are running the race set before 
you, how it must animate you to consider 
that your father's form is now among the 
great cloud of witnesses; observing your 
efforts. 



96 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

But if on the other hand, I wished to 
live without prayer and without praise, 
worldly and selfish, neglecting the ordi- 
nances of religion, I have not seen the in- 
dividual whom I should not rather have 
for a father than Deacon Eaton — a father 
whose profession and example could furnish 
his child no excuse for an irreligious life." 

The following obituary appeared in the 
Middlesex Journal, printed at Woburn : — 

u Died in South Reading, May 27th, after 
a short illness, Dea. Jacob Eaton, aged 8T 
years and 7 months. 

To miss one from our streets who has 
been treading them for almost a century, 
is indeed no ordinary change. Truly one 
of the fathers in Israel has left us ; and we 
have no hesitation in adding " full of days 
and of honor." For "he that waiteth on 
his Master shall be honored;" and the 
Master assures us, " He thathonoreth me, 
I will honor." And what honor can com- 
pare with that " which cometh from God 
only?" 

If an "honest man" is to be reckoned 
among the " noblest works of God," then 



DEACON JACOB EATOX. 97 

We think Dea> Eaton was in the best sense 
a, nobleman* Of noble person and noble 
intellect, he long stood in the front rank 
of our citizens, esteemed for his integrity, 
venerated for his wisdom and beloved for 
his goodness In his dealings with his fel- 
low men, well might he adopt the noble 
challenge of the patriarch Samuel, " whose 
ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded, 
Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hands 
have I received any bribe to blind my eyes 
therewith ? " He was a man who was nei* 
ther afraid nor ashamed to "be what he 
seemed and seem what he was." He was 
eminently a practical common sense man, 
not inclined to waste thought or time on 
visionary speculations, but to make the 
most of his opportunities to exert a salu- 
tary influence in the sphere in which he 
moved. But his crowning honor was, that 
he was an humble and devout disciple of 
the meek and lowly Jesus. He once re- 
marked to a young professor, " To live a 
consistent christian life, is no trifling thing." 
And his history shows that this sentiment 
was deeply impressed on his mind. 

He united with the Baptist Church in 



83 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

Woburn, more than 60 years since, before 
any church of this denomination existed in 
Reading,, and was there elected Deacon; 
and he has officiated in this office in the 
Baptist Church in his native town ever 
since its formation, now more than half a 
century. 

If a man's character i& to be estimated 
by his conduct, we are safe in concluding 
that Dea, Eaton habitually lived with the 
fear of God before his eyes, and acted 
with the love of God in his heart. And 
his " labor was- not in vain in the Lord." 
He " used the office of a deacon well," pro- 
fessed a good profession before many wit- 
nesses, and we doubt not has gone to his 
blessed reward in those mansions which 
the Lord of life and glory has prepared 
for them that love hinw" 

In person, Dea. Eaton was about six feet 
tall, — proportionally large and firmly built. 
His physical constitution had a strong hold 
on life and seemed reluctant to resign it. 
He was moderate and self-possessed in his 
temperament, though quick and comprehen- 
sive in his mental perception. 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 99 

Averse to repining or desponding, he 
was disposed to look on the agreeable as- 
pect of things, to be cheerful and hopeful, 
and enjoy the good gifts of Providence. 
And this, his habits of industry and tem- 
perance enabled him to do to an unusual 
extent during his life. 

In his manners, he was modest and affa- 
ble ; and being naturally social and quiet- 
ly facetious, his company and conversation, 
even in old age, were alike pleasing and 
instructive, both to the aged and the young. 

The portrait of him, taken when seventy 
years old, is a very good resemblance of 
his features and indication of his traits of 
character. 

Dea. E. lived in a most eventful period. 
What eighty years, for many ages, have 
been of equal interest? A new nation 
has sprung up in this Western World, bid- 
ding fair before another eighty years shall 
pass away, to out-number the present po- 
pulation of Europe — a new nation full of 
magnificent prospects, and which, in many 
respects, has already set a pattern to the 
whole world. 

But without stopping to notice the migh- 

Loft 



100 LIFE AND TIMES OF 

ty revolutions, &nd the grand inventions of 
the last eighty years, let us pause a moment 
to reflect on its crowning enterprize, name- 
ly, its efforts to spread abroad the " glv* 
rious gospel of the blessed God" 

There was one man, William Carey, born 
near the time of Jacob Eaton, like him an 
humble cordwainer, and belonging to the 
same unpopular denomination, who project- 
ed a mission to a pagan nation of a hundred 
millions, visited Asia, and himself learned 
more than fifty languages and dialects ; and 
through his labors and influence twenty- 
seven millions of heathen were enabled for 
the first time to read the word of God in 
their own tongue. And then, also, from his 
own country, Dea. E-* saw another of his 
own denomination, translate this same 
blessed book into the language of thirty 
tnillions. Verily what hath God wrought 
hj these two individuals only ? 

*«' Roll an thou -mighty ocean ; 
And as thy billows flow, 
Bear messages of mercy 
To every land below. 

Arise ye gales, and waft them 
Safe to the destined shore, 



That man may sit in darkness, 
And death's deep shade no more*'* 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 101 

We have now traced the course of an in- 
dividual from the commencement to the 
close of life — a journey we are all rapid- 
ly performing. 

11 The grave is near the cradle seen, 
How swift the moments pass between." 

The end of this journey, reader, is as im- 
portant to you, as to any of our race ; — 
why then should you not feel as deep an in- 
terest in the result as any other person ? 

When one interrogated Christ, " Are 
there few that be saved ? " Christ said, 
11 Strive — make agonizing efforts — to en- 
ter in at the straight gate." Strive against 
your indolence, your unbelief, impenitence, 
and the various hindrances which the world 
and Satan throw in your way. 

" The kingdom of heaven suffereth vio- 
lence" — permitteth violent or the most 
earnest efforts to enter it. 

Consider that God is a '-great king" and 
must be humbly and earnestly sought. 
And if a man has not found him, the rea- 
son is, he has not made a business of seek- 
ing him. 

If a man searches for God as he "seeks 



102 LIFE AND TIMES OP 

for hid treasure;" as he naturally and 
heartily seeks for wealth, honor and plea- 
sure in this world, he will certainly find him. 

If you cannot fix your mind on this great 
subject without devoting exclusively, weeks 
and months to it, this should be immedi- 
ately done — every thing is at stake. 

He that would have Heaven must run 
with patience the road to it; must strive 
and wrestle for it ; must deny himself and 
deny ungodliness. This is the divine plan 
and there is no other way ; — • no royal road 
of ease and luxury to Paradise. If you 
would die the death of the righteous, you 
must live the life of the righteous. The 
everlasting employment and song of Hea- 
ven must be commenced in this world. 
Heaven is a blessed, a glorious place, how 
dreadful if you fail of entering it. 

How plainly Christ teaches that some 
will be excluded from his heavenly king- 
dom;— -his words are, "There shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye 
shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
and all the prophets, in the kingdom of 
God, and you yourselves thrust out." 

Mr. Hall remarks, u We are made for the 



DEACON JACOB EATON. 103 

enjoyment of eternal blessedness; it is our 
high calling and destination; and not to 
pursue it with diligence, is to be guilty of 
the blackest ingratitude to the Author of 
our being, as well as the greatest cruelty 
to ourselves. 

" To fail of such an object, to defeat the 
end of our existence, and in consequence 
of neglecting the great salvation, to sink 
at last under the frown of the Almighty, is 
a calamity which words were not invented 
to express, nor finite minds formed to 
grasp. 

"Eternity, it is surely not necessary to 
remind you, invests every state, whether of 
bliss or suffering, with a mysterious and 
awful importance, entirely its own ; and is 
the only property in the creation which 
gives that weight and moment to whatever 
it attaches, compared to which all sublunary 
joys and sorrows, all interests which know 
a period, fade into the most contemptible 
insignificance. 

" In appreciating every other object, it is 
easy to exceed the proper estimate ; but 
what, if it be lawful to indulge such a 
thought, what would be the funeral obse- 



104 LIFE OF DEACON JACOB EATON. 

quies of a lost soul ? Where shall we find 
the tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle ? 
Or, could we realize the calamity in all its 
extent, what tokens of commiseration and 
concern would be deemed equal to the oc- 
casion ? Would it suffice for the Sun to 
veil his light, and the Moon her brightness; 
to cover the ocean with mourning and the 
heavens with sackcloth ? Or, were the 
whole fabric of nature to become vocal, 
would it be possible for her to utter a 
cry too piercing to express the magnitude 
and extent of such a catastrophe ? " 

I was going to say, how eloquent and 
pathetic is this appeal of a great man j but 
I will rather say, how much more so is that 
of the great God,— -"Say unto them, as I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no plea- 
sure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
the wicked turn from his way and live : 
turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for 
why will you die ? " 

0,my reader, while you live, never cease 
to strive to enter in at the straight gate, 
that hereafter an abundant entrance may 
be administered unto you into that celes- 
tial city and heavenly rest, which are pre* 
pared for the people of God. 



APPENDIX. 



Note (A.) Page 13. 

" His birth happened the year following 
the l Boston Massacre.' " 

Dea. Eaton, in his political views, was a 
strong friend to republican government and 
religious toleration, He thought, indeed, 
that the Christian Church, as constituted 
by its great Head, was a divine specimen 
of democratic society; being an associa- 
tion of persons independent of every other 
society, and having such equal divine rights 
and privileges as all saints possess by 
their adoption into the "household of 
faith/' and being amenable only to the 
Head of the Church, for the manner in 
which they administer his laws and ordi- 
nances. 

It is worthy of remark, that a Baptist* 

* Roger Williams, a Welshman by birth, in Rhode 
Island. 

5* 



106 APPENDIX. 

lias the honor of forming the first body-po- 
litic, with entire religious toleration, in the 
world. 

Mr. E. exerted himself to improve the 
Constitution of Massachusetts, under which 
persons of the Baptist denomination for- 
merly suffered in their property by taxes 
levied on them to pay other denominations 
where they did not worship. And he had 
the satisfaction of seeing the laws of this 
Commonwealth so amended, as that there 
was no longer occasion for this complaint. 

As to our general government, the chief 
circumstance which elicited his regret, was 
the dreadful blot of Slavery on the fair es- 
cutcheon of our Republic ; an institution so 
at variance with the letter of our declara- 
tion of independence, the spirit of our 
constitution and the genius of our govern- 
ment, that its continuance seemed to him a 
burden more and more intolerable the long- 
er he lived. He reasoned against it, pray- 
ed against it, voted against it, protested 
against it, and seemed in scripture phrase 
that he " could not away with it." He 
gave his sympathy, and made his house an 
inn for the oppressed. 



APPENDIX. 101 

It is a singular coincidence, that the same 
year (1620) in which the persecuted pil- 
grims fled to the wilderness of New Eng- 
land, to enjoy religious freedom, a slave 
ship should enter the waters of James 
River and sell to the Virginia Planters a 
part of her cargo of African Slaves, who 
were there thenceforward deprived of 
freedom, both civil and religious. Thus, 
whenever good seed is sown, the adversary 
is vigilant to sow tares. 

The only light which seems to gleam on 
this dark subject, is found in the idea that 
God, who is able to bring good out of evil, 
hath already taught many of these poor 
slaves the way of life, and may hereafter 
send the descendants of injured Africa back 
as christian missionaries to the land of 
their fathers, as is intimated in the follow- 
ing lines — 

41 Soon, round thy guarded coast, 

Shall the mission watch-fires burn ; 
And o'er the waves a ransomed host 
To the father- land return. 

Soon shall thy loneliest glen, 

By christian steps be trod ; 
And Ethiopia shall then 

4 Stretch out her hands to God.' " 



10S APPENDIX. 

Note (B.) Page 17. 

"I was persuaded that he possessed 
something of which I was destitute. " 

This incident shows how important and 
useful it is for young converts to tell what 
the Lord has done for them. The Psalm- 
ist says, " Come and hear all ye that fear 
God, and I will declare what he hath done 
for my soul." The animation and fresh- 
ness of their narrative arrests the atten- 
tion of the thoughtless. Christ said to the 
restored maniac, " Go home to thy friends 
and tell them how great things the Lord 
hath done for thee, and hath had compas- 
sion on thee." Such addresses have had 
the most powerful and salutary effect upon 
persons who for many years had been 
proof against the most logical sermons. 

No young convert should neglect to im- 
prove the precious season succeeding " the 
day of his espousals," to recommend to 
others his glorious Lord and Master. 

««I praised the Lord both night and day, 
From house to house I -went to pray ; 
And if I met one by the way, 
I always found some word to say 
About this blessed union." 



APPENDIX. 109 

Note (C.) Page 17. 

" One of these young men had lately 
made a profession of religion." 

This young man soon after removed to 
New Hampshire, where he lived to a very 
advanced age. A few years before his de- 
cease, he incidentally read the treatise of 
Dr. Harris, entitled " Mammon." This 
pungent work gave him such a ne^v view of 
his duty to exert himself to enlighten the 
ignorant and evangelize the heathen, as in- 
duced him, during his few remaining years, 
to contribute about two thousand dollars 
to such benevolent purposes. This shows 
M how forcible are right words." Dr. H. in 
preparing this work, rendered an impor- 
tant service to the destitute. 

Dea. E. took a strong interest in Mis- 
sions. He said to me that it had been a 
peculiar and great trial of his life, that he 
was continually circumscribed by his means, 
when there were so many important objects 
to which he wished to afford some pecuni- 
ary aid. 

I was strongly impressed on one occa- 
sion with some simple remarks of his oa 



110 APPENDIX. 

this subject; he said the Jews were requir- 
ed to contribute a "tithe" or tenth part of 
their income to the service of God, or re- 
ligious purposes; and it did not seem meet 
that Christians, under their more favored 
dispensation, should do less. He then de- 
sired his brethren to consider whether 
they had done thus. This would be an 
annual assessment of forty dollars on every 
person who annually received from his 
farm, orchard, garden, mechanical or men- 
tal labor, &c, the value of four hundred 
dollars. 

Truly, the object of giving the Bible to 
all nations is one so noble as to be worthy 
of making sacrifices to accomplish it. 

" Soon may the last glad song arise 
Through all the myriads of the skies, 
That song of triumph, which records, 
That all the earth is now the Lord's. 

O, let that glorious anthem swell, 
Let host to host the triumph tell, 
That not one rebel heart remains, 
But over all the Savior reigns." 



Note (D.) Page 18. 
" I perceived Mr. S. was a very different 
preacher from Mr. P." 



APPENDIX. Ill 

Mr. P. I suppose agreed in sentiments 
with his contemporaries, Mr. S., of North 
Reading, and Mr. M., of Lynnfield ; a class 
of preachers, probably, very like Dr. Bacon 
of Oxford, of whom Mr. Cecil says, " This 
wise man had not just views of serious re- 
ligion; he was one of those who are ,for 
reforming the parish — making the maids 
industrious and the men sober and honest, — • 
but when I ventured to ask, < Sir, must not 
this be effected by the infusion of a divine 
principle in the mind — a union of the soul 
with the great head of influence ? " he re- 
plied, "no more of that; no more of that, 
I pray ! " 

Sir James Mackintosh says in his journal, 
u The Calvinistic people of Scotland, of 
Switzerland, of Holland, and New England, 
have been more moral than the same class- 
es among other nations. Those who 
preached faith, or in other words a pure 
mind, have always produced more popular 
virtue than those who preached good works 
or the mere regulation of outward acts. ,, 

After Dr. Scott preached evangelical 
truths, he says, "I see the powerful effects 
of them continually among those to whom 



112 APPENDIX. 

I preach. I see notoriously immoral per- 
sons influenced to deny ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, and to live soberly, right- 
eously and godly, in this present world." 

Similar effects also attended the change 
of sentiments and preaching in Dr, Chalm- 
ers. This distinguished man says of his 
early preaching, " I am not sensible that 
all the vehemence with which I urged the 
virtues and proprieties of social life, had 
the weight of a feather on the moral habits 
of my parishioners. And it was not until 
I got impressed by the utter alienation of 
the heart, in all its desires and affections, 
from God, — it was not till reconciliation 
to him became the distinct and the promi- 
nent object of my ministerial exertions, 
that I ever heard of any of those subordi- 
nate reformations which I aforetime made 
the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid 
at the same time, the ultimate object of my 
earlier ministrations." 

These testimonies are worthy of serious 
consideration. 

Ought we not to expect, that preaching 
which most nearly accords with divine re- 
velation, would produce the best effects on 



APPENDIX. 113 

There is a sort of indiscriminating, 
pointless preaching, which, if adapted to 
any beings, seems suited to those less fall- 
en and depraved, than the inhabitants of 
this planet. 

Some preachers appear to resemble very 
polite physicians who administer mere opi- 
ates and well flavored potions, though their 
patients are in the incipient stages of the 
most acute and dangerous diseases. 

Surely such practitioners must be in 
Scripture phrase, " physicians of no value" 
. — who u heal the hurt of the daughter of 
my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, 
when there is no peace." 

14 At length the great Physician — 
How matchless is his grace ! — 
Accepted my petition, 
And undertook my case. 

First gave me sight to view him, 
For sin my eyes had sealed, 
Then bade me look unto him, — 
I looked, and I was healed." 

Though at the period in question, few 
ministers in Xew England preached Socin- 
ian or Unitarian tenets ; a considerable 
jiumber preached Pelagian or Armin ; "~ 



114 APPENDIX. 

sentiments. Of these systems, Dr. Scott 
remarks, " The Socinians consider Christ 
as a mere man, and his death merely as an 
example of patience and a confirmation of 
his doctrine, and not as a real atonement, 
satisfactory to divine justice for man's sins, 

" They deny the Deity and personality of 
the Holy Ghost, and do not admit that all 
christians experience his renewing, sancti- 
fying and comforting influences ; and they 
generally reject the doctrine of eternal 
punishment. The Pelagians deny original 
sin, and explain away the scriptural history 
of the fall of man. They do not allow the 
total depravity of human nature, but ac- 
count for the wickedness of the world from 
bad examples, habits and education. 

"They suppose men to possess an ability, 
both natural and moral, of becoming pious 
and holy without a new creation or regen- 
eration of the heart by the Holy Spirit ; 
and they contend for the freedom ot the 
will, not only as constituting us voluntary 
agents, accountable for our conduct, but as 
it consists in exemption from the bondage 
of innate carnal propensities ; so that man 
has in himself sufficient resources for his 



APPENDIX. 115 

recovery to holiness by his own exertions. 

" The Arminians deny the doctrines of 
gratuitous personal election to eternal life, 
and of the final perseverance of all true 
believers ; and numbers of them hold the 
doctrine of justification by works in part 
at least ; and verge in some degree to the 
Pelagian system in respect of the first mov- 
ing cause in the conversion of sinners." 

Dr. Scott speaks as follows of himself, 
while embracing these sentiments : — " I met 
with a Socinian comment on the scriptures, 
and greedily drank the poison, because it 
quieted my fears and flattered my abomin- 
able pride. The whole system coincided 
exactly with my inclinations and the state 
of my mind. In reading this exposition, 
sin seemed to Jose its native ugliness, and 
to appear a very small and tolerable evil ; 
man's imperfect obedience seemed to shine 
with an excellency almost divine ; and God 
appeared so entirely and necessarily merci- 
ful, that he could not make any of his crea- 
tures miserable without contradicting his 
natural propensity. These things influenc- 
ed my mind so powerfully, that I was 
enabled to consider myself, notwithstanding 



t 



116 APPENDIX. 

a few blemishes as, upon the whole, a very 
worthy being. 

"At the same time, the mysteries of the 
gospel being explained away, or brought to 
the level of man's comprehension, by such 
proud and corrupt, though specious reason- 
ings j by acceeding to these sentiments, I 
was, in my own opinion, in point of under- 
standing and discernment, exalted to a su- 
periority above the generality of mankind ; 
and I pleased myself in looking down with 
contempt upon such as were weak enough 
to believe the orthodox doctrines. I was 
nearly a Socinian and Pelagian, and wholly 
an Arminian. These things I wished to 
believe ; and I had my wish, for at length 
I did most confidently believe them. Being 
taken captive in this snare by Satan, I 
should here have perished with a lie in my 
right hand, had not the Lord, whom I dis- 
honored, snatched me as a brand from the 
burning." 

These very free and ingenuous confes- 
sions of such a man as Dr. Thomas Scott, 
concerning himself and the sentiments 
which he for years cherished and advocated 
and on which he bestowed so inuch thought 



APPENDIX. 117 

and ultimately so'decidedly renounced; are 
worthy of an equally candid and thorough 
consideration. 

Dr. dimming remarks : — " Man's con- 
stant prescription for the elevation of man, 
is to alter his circumstances ; God's grand 
prescription for the improvement of man is 
to change his heart. Man's plan is to give 
the patient a new bed ; God's divine plan 
is to give the patient health. 

"Man goes to the circumference, and tries 
by civilizing to get inward, and ultimately 
to christianize ; God's plan is to begin at 
the centre, christianize the heart, and then 
civilize the whole circumference of the so- 
cial system." 

And is not this the plain doctrine of the 
great Teacher himself — " Make the tree 
good and his fruit good ;" " Except a man 
be born again he cannot see the kingdom 
of God?" 

The effect of thorough gospel preaching, 
has in our own time been repeatedly shown 
on nations of entire pagans. 

When ]\fr. Judson visited Burmah in 
1813, there was not a known individual in 
the nation that believed or cared about 



118 APPENDIX. 

Christianity. When he died in 1850, there 
were more than 6000 in that benighted 
region, who gave good evidence of having 
believed unto salvation. 

The biographer of Dr. Judson remarks : 
— " There was not, at the time of his (Mr. 
Judson's) arrival at Rangoon, a single na- 
tive who had embraced the religion of Je- 
sus. He was aware of the oppression and 
cruelty of the rulers, and the wickedness 
and misery of the people ; he knew that 
they were steeped in an idolatry that had 
become venerable by antiquity ; yet he be- 
lieved there existed in the gospel a sover- 
eign^remedy for all these evils. His ob- 
ject then was to accomplish the most 
stupendous revolution of which we can 
conceive, in the whole people; it was 
nothing less than the entire transformation 
of the moral character of every individual. 
The means by which this was to be accom- 
plished was very simple; it was the an- 
nouncement of the message from God to 
man, attended by the omnipotent power of 
the Spirit of God. He believ^i that this 
work would be accomplished, simply be- 
cause God had promised it." 



APPENDIX. 119 

li may be worth while to observe the 
object which Mr. Judson always kept stea- 
dily in view to the exclusion of every other. 
It was not to teach men a creed, or to train 
them to the performance of certain rites, 
OT to persuade them to belong to a partic- 
ular church, but first of all to produce in 
them a radical and universal change of 
moral character, to lead them to repent of 
and forsake all sin, to love G-od with an 
affection that should transcend m power 
every other motive, and to rely for salva- 
tion wholly on the merits of that atone- 
ment which has been made for man by ou? 
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It pleased 
God to crown his labors with success. 

It will be seen that, as the fruit of his 
labors,, this type of character, so peculiar 
to the New Testament, was created in the 
souls of ignorant, licentious, and atheistic 
Buddhists. These disciples talk, and act, 
and feel in the very spirit of Christ and 
his apostles. Never, until this temper of 
heart was exhibited, were they admitted to 
the ordinance of baptism, and received as 
members of the Christian church. 

At the same time, the persecutions to 



120 APPENDIX. 

which they would be exposed, were plainly 
set before them. They were told that un- 
less they loved Christ better than houses, 
or lands, or brethren, or their own lives, 
they could not be his disciples. 

No one who could not bear this test was 
encouraged to hope that he was a child of 
God. And yet, in view of all this, many 
earnestly desired permission to profess 
themselves the disciples of Jesus. Such, 
and such only, formed the church at Ran- 
goon. 

He believed himself authorized to admit 
to the fellowship of saints none but those 
on whom this great moral change had pass- 
ed. Hence we find in his journals no ac- 
count of children who were baptized on 
the faith of their parents. He believed 
religion to be a personal matter between 
God and the soul of man; and hence, 
where there could be no "evidence of a re- 
newal of the moral nature of man, there 
could be no reason for admitting an indi- 
vidual, whether young or old, to the ordi- 
nances of a spiritual church. 

It is in this respect mainly, that chris- 
tians of the Baptist persuasion differ from 



APPENDIX. 121 

their brethren who hold with them the 
other great doctrines of the reformation." 
See Dr. Wayland's Memoir of Dr. Jud- 
son. 



Note (E.) Page 24. 

"My conscience was too much enlighten- 
ed/' <fcc. 

Mr. E. here alludes to a state of mind 
equally unsafe and uncomfortable ; — a con- 
viction of what is truth and an approval of 
it in one's judgment without a relish for it 
in the heart. 

In after life he occasionally, with deep 
emotion, referred to the probable and fear- 
ful fact that multitudes of our race in chris- 
tian lands, stop here and live and die with 
this "lie in their right hand;" namely, 
their judgment " approving the things that 
are excellent," while their "hearts were 
going after their covetousness" — and they 
too much "overcharged" "with the care 
of this world, and the deceitfulness of 
riches" to " examine themselves, prove 

themselves and know their own selves," 
6 



T22 APPENDIX. 

whether they "be reprobates ;" — and so* 
at last to their cry of " Lord, Lord open 
unto us," they can only hear these awful 
words — " Depart from me, ye that work 
iniquity." 

Here is a point at which every person in 
a christian land, whether professor or non- 
professor, ought to pause and most honest- 
ly examine his own character. 

" Who can understand his errors ? " 

•« Nothing but truth before his throne, 
Willi* Honor can appear." 



Note (F.) Fage 27. 

"2 had also a new view of the character 
and sacrifice of Christ." 

Christ in his character and atonement is 
the great subject of the Gospel — the es- 
sence of the " glad-tidings of great joy" 
that the enraptured angels delighted to 
sing. 

Christ said, "as Moses lifted up the ser- 
pent in the wilderness, even so must the 
son of man be lifted up, that whosoever 



APPENDIX. 123 

believeth in Mm, might not perish but hare 
everlasting life." 

When God pours out his spirit, then sin- 
ners " look on him whom they have pierc- 
ed, (by their unbelief, neglect and trans- 
gressions,) and mourn." They then under- 
stand how 

"Each of their sins became a nail, 
And unbelief the spear." 

They see the evil nature and dreadful ten- 
dency of sin. 

The sight of infinite holiness and infinite 
mercy is what breaks and subdues the heart* 

Can a person with Socinian views, ever 
have such feelings toward Christ as Mr. E. 
here expresses ? Can he ever say with 
Paul, " yea, doubtless, and I count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for 
whom I have suffered the loss of all things 
and do count them but dung, that I may 
win Christ?" 

Can he ever join in that redemption song 
of heaven " to Him who hath redeemed us 
to God by his awn blood, out of every kin- 
dred and tongue, and people and nation,— 



124 APPENDIX. 

saying, with a loud voice, worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain to receive power and 
riches and wisdom and strength and honor 
and glory and blessing — and blessing and 
honor and glory and power be tmta Him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb forever and ever ? " 

" E'er since, by faith I saw the stream, 
Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be till I die. 

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, 

I'll sing thy power to save ; 
When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue 

Lies silent in the grave." 

'• Tis the Savior ! Angels raise 
Fame's eternal trump of praise ! 
Let the earth's remotest bound, 
Hear the joy inspiring sound, 
Hallelujah ! Praise the Lord I 

Praise him all ye heavenly choirs ! 
Praise, and sweep your golden lyres ! 
Shout, earth, in rapturous song, 
Let the strains be sweet and strong ! 
Hallelujah I Praise the Lord !" 



APPENDIX. 125 

Note ( G.) Page 29. 

11 Had not thy choice prevented mine, 
I ne'er had chosen thee." 

Dr. Scott remarks, " The doctrine of per- 
sonal election to eternal life, when proper- 
ly stated, lies open to no objection, which 
may not likewise with equal plausibility 
be urged against the conduct of God, in 
placing one nation in a more favorable 
condition than another, especially as to 
religious advantages, without the previous 
good or bad behaviour of either of them, 
ov any discernible reason for the prefer- 
ence. 

In both cases we may say, unmerited 
favor to one person, or people, is no in- 
justice to others ; and the infinitely wise 
God hath many reasons for his determina- 
tions, which we cannot discern, and which 
he deigns not to make known to us. 

The grand difficulty in the whole of the 
divine conduct equally embarrasses every 
system of Christianity; and every scheme 
of Deism, except men deny that God is 
the Creator and Governor of the world. 

For wickedness and misery actually exist 



■• 



126 APPENDIX. 



and abound; the fact is undeniable. The 
Almighty God could have prevented this ; 
and we should have thought that infinite 
love would have preserved the creation 
from all evils of every description. Yet 
infinite Wisdom saw good to permit them 
to enter, and amazingly to prevail ! 

Till this difficulty be completely solved, 
let none object to truths, plainly revealed 
in scripture, on account of similar difficul- 
ties." 

That quaint and original writer, John 
Leland remarks in reference to this sub- 
ject, 

" When I turn my eyes to the upper 
book, (the eternal design of God, J I there 
read that God's work is before him and 
that he works all things according to the 
counsel of his own will ; that neither a 
sparrow, nor a hair of the head, can fall 
without our heavenly Father ; that provi- 
dence and grace are the agents to execute 
his purposes. 

" But when I look into the I6w.er book, 
(the freedom of the human will,) I find that 
condemnation is conditional. Oh that thou 
had&t hearkened unto me, then had thy peace 



APPENDIX. 12^ 

been as a river ; — seeing ye judge yourselves 
unworthy of eternal life, lo ! we turn to the 
Gentiles.' 1 §c. 

If I do not read and believe the upper 
.book, I impeach the omnicience and wis- 
dom of Jehovah. And if I do not likewise 
read.and believe the lower book, I deny 
the possibility of guilt or blame. 

I must, therefore believe both; and 
where I cannot comprehend, I will adore ; 
where I cannot read, I will spell ; and what 
I cannot spell out, I must skip. 

If the human mind should be so enlarg- 
ed that it could solve every difficulty that 
has hitherto appeased, that same enlarge- 
ment of thought would unfold a thousand 
difficulties more, -so subtile and minute, 
that it never felt their weight before ; so 
that there would be no getting through ! 

Let the man of God read, study, medi- 
tate, consider, pray and seek after wisdom 
as for hidden treasure ; but when he comes 
to water too deep for his length, let him 
adore and be humble." 

And surely it is not for the little child 
just learning its A. B- 0. to complain that 
his father has not explained to him the 



128 APPENDIX. 

principles on which Eclipses are calculated. 

Besides, — some part of the obscurity in 
the divine government may be intended as 
a test of man's humility and subjection to 
his rightful Sovereign against whom he, 
has rebelled without cause. 

God asserts " my ways are equal" — 
" your ways are unequal ;" — and commands, 
" submit yourselves unto God." 

The disobedient child should confess his 
fault and resign himself to his father's dis- 
posal, even if he know not all his father's 
designs tow r ard such offenders. 

This is unquestionably our proper busi- 
ness and highest wisdom in this life. 



Note (H.) Page 31. 

" Nothing prevented any from eating and 
living forever, but their own love of sin." 

Bunyan represents that though the king 
of the country where his pilgrim journeyed 
had directed many thousands of cartloads 
of proper materials to be thrown into the 
"dough of Dcsjwnd" to fill it up, still it 



APPENDIX. 129 

was a place where travellers were often in 
trouble. They were nor careful to jceljor 
the stepping stones, the faithful promises; 
such as, " Look unto me all ye ends of the 
earth and be ye saved;" "Come unto me 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I 
will give you rest." 

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of 
all acceptation, that " Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners. And who- 
soever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." 

' I have thought with admiration on the 
following words of Christ : "All that the 
Father giveth me shall come to me," — but 
lest any should stumble on this expression 
as the result of electing love, and feel as 
though there was no mercy for them, he in- 
stantly adds in the same breath, "And ivho- 
soever cometh unto me, I will in no wise 
cast out," — making this gracious declara- 
tion unlimitedly extensive. 

The scriptures represent the Father as 
covenanting with the Son, that he should 
"see the travail of his soul and be satis- 
fied," — that he " should have a seed to 

serve him," — and for this certain "joy set 
6* 



130 APPENDIX. 

before him, he endured the cross," <fec. 

I remember at one time in my course of 
scientific lecturing, an individual wishing 
me to lecture in a certain place, guaranteed 
me at least such a number of hearers, (that 
I might have something to depend upon as 
an inducement to remove my apparatus and 
commence,) stating that if more were dis- 
posed to attend, that would be my addi- 
tional gain. I went ; and my tickets were 
offered to all with the greatest sincerity, 
though I was depending on a certain num- 
ber and reward according to agreement." 

Perhaps such an imperfect illustration 
may show how such a guarantee is consis- 
tent with entire sincerity in a general 
proposal. 

But certainly there is perfect sincerity 
in the Lord's direction that the gospel be 
preached to « every creature" for he no 
where teaches us that souls are elected to 
perdition ; but assures us on his most sol- 
emn oath that he hath no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked 
turn from his way and live. 

And Christ says of the rebellious Jews, 
<" how oft would I have gathered thy .children 



APPENDIX. 131 

together, even as a hen gathereth her brood 
under her wings, but ye would not." 

As these declarations must be perfectly- 
sincere and true, no explanation of election, 
predestination or decrees incompatible with 
such sincerity and truth can be correct, 

"Though all are welcome by the Gospel call, 
How few will come ! and none would come at all, 
Did not the Spirit's efficacious power 
Their hearts constrain in his appointed hour ! 

But granted this, does want of will, I pray, 
Excuse the sin of those who keep away ? 
You have a servant ; ask that servant, why 
With your injunctions he will not comply ? 

* I have no will,' methinks I hear him say, 

* Yourself to love or your commands obey ; 
I'm surely not to blame for acting so; 

For I my nature cannot change you know.' 

And will depravity afford a plea 

From every bond of duty to set free ? 

The most depraved are then the least to blame ; 

And si?i must lose its nature and its name." 



"Man, hast thou sinn'd, the fault is thine 
In spite of all you do, 
Nor God, nor man, nor devil, nor sin, 
Will bear the blame for you." 



132 APPENDIX. 

Note (I) Page 32. 

" At what time in your narrative do you 
consider yourself to have been regenerat- 
ed ?" 

The word of inspiration in describing 
the way in which the divine Spirit converts 
the soul is very expressive : " I will bring 
the blind by a way they knew not, I will 
lead them in paths they have not known ; 
I will make darkness light before them, and 
crooked things straight. These things will 
I do unto them and not forsake them." 

This "way of life," which is "above to 
the wise," is a stumbling stone to many 
who have thought much on religion. 

People often picture to their minds the 
way in which they must be converted to 
God, — if they ever are converted. 

But in the commencement of christian 
character, it is often eminently true that 
" the kingdom of heaven cometh not by ob- 
servation." It is like the wind, which be* 
ginneth to blow, we know not where ; or 
the unseen leaven, which commenceth its in- 
fluence wx) know not when ; or the germi- 



APPENDIX. 133 

oration of seed, which though the philoso- 
pher should " rise night and day " to 
pursue his investigation, yet tlie seed will 
" spring and grow up he knowethnothow." 

The divine Spirit is never fettered by 
human contrivances. Independent and 
sovereign, he works altogether as pleaseth 
him. He brings the poor blind sinner, not 
by the track he had marked out, but by a 
way he never thought of. He is lead from 
step to step in a new path, by providences he 
could not anticipate and over which he had 
no control. Sometimes he has to follow 
the pillar of cloud by day and then dark- 
ness is made light before him, and crooked 
things appear straight. Those doctrines 
which had appeared crooked, contrary, and 
even contradictory, become plain, consis- 
tent and harmonious to his view. 

Thus it was with Mr. E. 



Note (J.) Puge 35. 

" I tried to bring my mind to the practice 
of the Pedo-baptists.'' 

Although Mr. Eatom felt it his duty to 



134 APPENDIX. 

unite with a different denomination, he 
never forgot his early friends at the meet- 
ing of Mr. S. 

With one* of these, a member of the 
Congregational Church in West Reading, 
of nearly his age, in his latter years he 
used to interchange visits, and by each of 
these patriarch's of nearly four score years, 
these visits were greatly enjoyed. 

They reviewed the scenes of their early 
days, the events of divine Providence for 
many years, and looked forward beyond 
the cold stream of Jordan to the " celestial 
city," where Bunyan's Pilgrim entered and 
like the " holy dreamer," wishedthemselves 
^among those happy ones. 

The Apostle exhorts us to "be patient 
toward all men." He took a comprehen- 
sive and noble view of different tempera- 
ments, and those diversities of opinion 
which to a certain extent must exist in the 
present state, from different education, 
habits of thinking and strength of intellect. 

If christians exercise patience and for- 
bearance toward one another and pay pro- 
per respect to each other's independence of 

* Mr. Richard Parker, now living at the age of 88. 



APPENDIX. 135 

judgment, such feelings and deportment 
may appear a greater evidence of the 
benign effects of true religion, than the 
producing entire uniformity of sentiment. 

It is a great attainment in christian char- 
acter to be perfectly patient toward another 
when your arguments do not convince him ; 
and quietly indulge him in the same inde- 
pendent right to judge for himself as you 
demand for yourself; and without calling 
him by any opprobrious names, still love 
him and treat him kindly. " Whereunto 
we have attained, let us walk by the same 
rule — let us mind the same things." 

We may walk together as far as we are 
agreed, and beyond this, " love as breth- 
ren " those who, notwithstanding " they 
follow not w r ith us," afford us evidence of 
possessing true piety. 

Though principle and conscience are never 
to be given up for the sake of uniformity, 
yet when arguing with an opponent it is 
well, instead of magnifying the points of 
difference between us, to see in how many 
.things we agree. 

" Bleat be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in christian love ; 



136 APPENDIX, 

The fellowship of kindred minds, 
Is like to tirat above. 

When we asunder part, 
It gives us inward pain ; 

But we shall still be joined in heart 
And hope to meet again." 



Note (K.) Page 36. 

"Appeared to settle the question about 
John's baptism being 'gospel baptism/ ' 

John the Baptist, particularly reproved 
the Jews for valuing themselves on account 
of their lineal descent from Abraham, teach- 
ing them that the "kingdom" which the 
" God of heaven " was about to " set up" 
in the earth, (see prophecies of Daniel, 2d 
chap,, 44th v.,) was not to be of a nation- 
al character. Hence he says, " Now also 
the axe is laid to the root oj the trees" — (as 
laid by the woodman who is prepared for 
his work,) every member of the new king- 
dom must be received on his own profes- 
sion and responsibility — " bring forth, 
therefore, fruits meet for repentance." 

Not lineal descent, but moral character is 



APPENDIX. 137 

the test for admission to ordinances of the 
Christian Church. For here, as in the 
language of the Apostle, " neither circum- 
cision availeth any thing nor uncireuincision, 
but a new creature" 

Hence the Christian Church was a 'king- 
dom ' l set up ' with its own peculiar ordi- 
nances, and not ordinances borrowed from 
those which Christ repealed, or in the 
Apostle's language "having abolished in 
his flesh the enmity, even the law of com- 
mandments contained in ordinances — blott- 
ing out the handwriting of ordinances, <fcc. 
The law and the prophets were until John, 
since that time the kingdom of God is 
preached, <fcc. Even the day of rest of 
this kingdom or dispensation, is a new day 
— commemorative, not of the Creation, 
but of the resurrection of Him who is also 
tf Lord of the Sabbath." 

This is one of the reasons why we would 
not call the Christian Church the "Jewish 
Church continued," nor baptism " Christian 
Circumcision," — a phrase which we no- 
where find in the " law and testimony." 

If, indeed, christian baptism is christian 
circumcision, would it not have been very 



138 APPENDIX. 

easy for Paul to Lave quieted the minds of 
the Galatians who were so tenacious of 
retaining the Jewish rite, by telling them 
that they now had a grand substitute, and 
far more agreeable rite, namely, " Christian 
Circumcision?" — an expedient of which, 
notwithstanding the fertility of his concep- 
tions and the fluency of his arguments, it 
•seems he never thought. 

The great mistake of the pilgrim fathers 
of New England, who in many respects 
were intelligent and worthy men, lay in 
taking the laws of Moses for the commands 
of Christ, and blending the Jewish and 
Christian dispensations together. Hence 
their magistrates supposed they were rul- 
ing in the name of the Lord, when, Saul of 
Tarsus like, they were hauling to prison, to 
the whipping post and the gallows, men 
and women who believed differently from 
themselves. 

And so the blending of two distinct dis- 
pensations appears still to lead our Pedo- 
baptist brethren into what we believe the 
error of administering what they call the 
ordinance of baptism, to infants, without 
confession of either faith or repentance; 



APPENDIX. 139 

for which they admit* they have no exam- 
ple in the New Testament; though they in- 
fer the practice ? from the existence of 
circumcision under the Old Testament. 



Note (L.) Page 37. 

"I chose the former and have never had 
occasion to repent of my choice." 

And truly, who ever had occasion to re- 
pent of choosing to follow the dictates of 
his conscience and the directions of the 
New Testament, carefully and prayerfully 
sought ? One feels to approve and admire 
the straightforward honesty of this course. 
Indeed we have no sympathy with the sen- 
timent, that because a man, after seriously 
perusing the New Testament, feels con- 
strained to adopt the course of Mr. E., he 
has "taken the first step to infidelity." t 

* Dr. Woods says, " We have no precept or example 
for infant baptism in all our holy writings." Yide Dr- 
L. Woods sermon on Infant Baptism. 

f Might we not refer to the sentiments of Baptists in 
Boston, as showing the contrary of this, during the 
time that Dr. Woods calls " a lamentable declension 
among the ministers and churches of New England, 
and a tendency in multitudes of instances to Arminian 
and Pelagian sentiments ? " 



140 APPENDIX. 

Rather fee has taken the self-denying step 
of fidelity to Him who has said, " if ye love 
me, keep my commands; and whosoever 
loveth father or mother, son or daughter, 
more than me, is not worthy of me." 

Dr. Wisner, in his " History of the Old 
South Church, in Boston," states, that even 
its Pastor, Dr. Eckley, M became semi-arian 
in his views of the person of Christ." He 
says, " Every thing, evangelical and vital 
in doctrine and practice, in the Congrega- 
tional denomination, was withering and 
ready to die. In the fall of 1803, God 
was pleased to pour out his spirit on the 
Baptist Churches then in this city, and 
grant them a special revival of religion. 
Members of this (the Old South) and other 
Congregational Churches, frequented the 
meetings of the Baptists during this season 
of special religious attention. Dr. Eckley 
and Drs. Stillman and Baldwin, had before 
been in the habit of attending each others' 
preparatory lectures. By this means Dr. 
Eckley was brought into the midst of the 
revival. Thus a reviving influence was 
brought into this (the Old South) congre- 
gation.; which had for a iime to struggle 
for existence." 



APPENDIX. 141 

And Professor Ralph Emerson, in speak- 
ing of his brother's attending Baptist meet- 
ings in Boston, near the commencement of 
the present ceatury, says, " The reason of 
that attendance was, that their preaching 
wag much more spiritual than he elsewhere 
found in that vicinity. It was food and 
life to his hungry soul. 

Nothing is more natural than that his 
renovated spirit should seek its best ali- 
ment, wherever it could be found. Nor is 
it easy for us of late years to conceive of 
the spiritual dearth which then reigned in 
those Congregational Churches. 

Doubtless they contained many pious 
persons; but tbey had little religious in- 
tercourse or apparent life. They had 
nothing like prayer meetings and confer-- 
ences to bring them acquainted with each 
other, and to " stir up their pure minds.'' 
Low Armenianism and a dead undefined 
Orthodoxy, mingled with great worldiiness, 
pervaded and paralyzed the visible bady of 
believers. 

In this ill-boding state of things, when 
the wise and the foolish were slumbering 
together, the Baptists were awake. And 



142 APPENDIX. 

the consequence was that, for years they 
gathered around them most of those in the 
metropolis whose hearts were touched with 
special fervor in the cause of God." — Life 
of Rev. Joseph Emerson* 



Note (M.) Page 39. 

" Nine considerable revivals that during 
the sixty years following he witnessed." 

Perhaps the first special revival of re- 
ligion here was in the time of Mr. White- 
field. He preached on the Common in the 
open air. Mr. Eaton's mother was one of 
his hearers. 

His text was, " Whose fan is in his hand 
and he will thoroughly purge his floor and 
gather his wheat into his garner ; but he 
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable 
fire." She, though young, remembered 
that he spoke with wonderful energy and 
pathos. 

It is stated that the mother of Dr. J. H. 
and of Capt, J. G., were among the con- 
verts. 



APPENDS. 143" 

Mrs. G. said that soon after this, she and 
other young women of Reading, went on 
foot to Lynn r to hear Mr. Whitefield preach 
on Lynn Common. 

It is related that Mr. Hobby, then min- 
ister of Reading, was greatly affected by 
Mr. W.'s preaching ; saying that he " went 
to pick a hole in Mr. W.'s coat, but that he 
(Mr. W.) picked a hole in his heart." 

Mr. Hobby afterwards wrote and pub- 
lished a defence of Mr. Whitefield in a let- 
ter to Mr. Henchman of Lynn, who had 
written against Mr. W. 

Mr. Whitefield was born in 1714; or- 
dained a preacher in 1736 ; he crossed the 
Atlantic on a visit to Georgia in 1737, and- 
subsequently crossed this ocean twelve 
times, passing through the Cities of Eng- 
land, Scotland and Wales, and the provinces 
of North America, as a flying angel, having 
the everlasting gospel to preach to those 
who inhabited these regions. 

On his first visit to Boston, he arrived 
there by land from Rhode Island, Thursday 
evening, Sept. 18th, 1840. 

The next day he preached to a vast con- 
gregation in Brattle Square Church. On 



144 APPENDIX. 

Saturday, in the forenoon, he preached at 
the Old South Church, and in the afternoon 
to about five thousand persons on Boston 
Common. 

On Lord's-day following, he preached to 
a great congregation in the old Brick 
Church, (where Joy's building now stands,) 
and then afterwards to eight thousand per- 
sons in the field. On Monday he preached 
at the Church, now Dr. Parkman's, in Han- 
over street. 

Thus he continued his incessant labors 
in Boston and other towns for a few weeks ; 
and when he preached his farewell sermon, 
on a Sabbath evening, on Boston Common, 
it was estimated there were more than 
twenty-three thousand persons present, 
although the population of Boston was 
then only about twenty thousand; multi- 
tudes came from neighboring towns. 

A hearer of that sermon remarked, "such 
a power and presence of God with a 
preacher, I never saw before." 

To these labors of Mr. W. there suc- 
ceeded an extensive and powerful revival, 
such as New England had never witness- 



APPENDIX. 145 

ed.* And wherein did Mr. Whitefield's 
great strength lie ? - He was a remarkably 
plain, simple character. He constantly 
preserved a deep feeling of his dependence 
on divine assistance, and his own airwor- 
thiness. 

It is related that a minister came some 
distance to converse with Mr. W. and get 
instructions on the best manner of preach- 
ing. He got admitted to the house where 
Mr. W. put up 7 but for want of more ac- 
commodations, he lodged in the same room 
with Mr. W. As he lay meditating how he 
should best introduce his errand to Mr. W. 
in the morning, the latter awoke, raised 
himself on his knees, and in a low voice or 
whisper, addressed a short prayer to the 
Lord, confessing his unworthiness and de- 
pendence, — praying that God would pre- 
serve him from sinning with his lips, help 
him to live a holy life, keep him in his love, 
bless his labors, &c, — and then laid down 
and slept again; this exercise he repeated 
as oft as he awoke during the night. 

* It is well known that Mr. Whitefield's bones repose 
in our land. He was interred under the pulpit of the 
house of worship in which he was to have preached on 
that Lord's day on which he died. 



146 APPENDIX. 

The stranger was so impressed with the 
simple and devout character of Mr. W., 
that he asked for no further instructions 
on the secret of successfully preaching the 
gospel. 

Ths charm of Mr. Whitefield's preaching 
was this : he was evidently so thoroughly 
honest and intensely in earnest. 

His strong faith was almost vision. By 
it he looked at things not seen. 

On one occasion as he was addressing 
the unconverted and looking forward to 
the doom of such, with flowing tears he 
lifted up his hands and eyes and exclaimed, 
" my hearers, the wrath's to come — the 
wrath's to come!" 

One of his hearers remarked, that for 
days and weeks he could think of but little 
else but these awful words, which followed 
him wherever he went. And he found no 
peace till he found it in repentance and in 
the pardoning grace of Christ Jesus, which 
" delivereth us from the wrath to come." 

And here I am reminded of what Dr. P., 
a physician of D., once said to me. He 
was a member of the Universalist Society 
in that place. He had been to his minister 



APPENDIX. 147 

with this question, " Did you ever know a 
Universalist minister so anxious for the 
salvation of his hearers as to weep over 
them?" He was answered, "No, sir; we 
believe that all our hearers will certainly 
be saved/' 

Dr. F. then read to him these words of 
Paul, " Therefore watch and remember how 
that by the space of three years, I ceased 
not day and night to warn every man with 
tears ;" and inquired if that account did 
not look as if the Apostle had different 
views of the condition and danger of his 
hearers from what Universalist ministers 
had of theirs ? 

Revivals of religion are effects of the 
faithful preaching of the gospel as really 
now as in the days of the Apostles. The 
scripture teaches that mankind, both Jews 
and Gentiles, are " by nature children of 
wrath," because " children of disobedience." 
Hence when they are so taught as to deep- 
ly consider this, it is not strange that in 
the language of those who were "'pricked 
in their hearts" in the revival at the day of 
Pentecost, they cry out, " what must we do 
to be saved? " 



148 APPENDIX* 

Any mode of preaching under which 
apostate men do not feel alarmed, is preach- 
ing " another gospel;" and the fearful con- 
sequences of thus leading the blind, is an- 
nounced by the Apostle in these solemn 
words, " Though an angel from heaven 
preach any other gospel — let him be ac- 
cursed." 

As " that which is born of the flesh, is 
flesh/' mankind must be regenerated in or- 
der to love God and holiness; and any 
system of preaching which leads men to 
think that, as they are born in a christian 
land, they are naturally christians, as all 
born of Jewish parents and circumcised 
belonged to the Jewish national church, 
tends to deceive and destroy them. Not 
only our spiritual welfare, but our temporal 
privileges, depend on the prevalence of 
these just sentiments. 

What is the reason that the French na- 
tion and Spanish America, even when they 
had asserted their independence, could not 
support and enjoy free institutions ? Was 
it not manifestly the want of more virtue, 
more true piety, as well as general intelli- 
gence, in the masses of those nations ? 



AJPPENDIX. 149 

Was it not the extensive revivals in the 
time of Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and 
such men, that prepared the mass of the 
people in the United States to support and 
preserve the freedom which the Providence 
of God was pleased to bestow upon us ? 
If so, it is no less the duty of the patriot 
than the saint, to be grateful for the visits 
among us of such men as George White- 
field. 



Note (N.) Page 51. 

" A meeting for humiliation fasting and 
prayer, was appointed March 10th. 1801." 

This prayer meeting in his house, Dea. 
Eaton referred to as one of the most re- 
markable days of his life. Before the 
meeting hour arrived, there was extraordi- 
nary interest felt in it. Dea. E. said that 
when he arose in the morning, before sun- 
rise, on looking out the window he saw his 
Bro. D. S., who had walked a mile and was 
waiting to enter the house. And when the 
brethren and sisters came together, there 
was the most intense feeling. 



150 APPENDIX. 

One brother was so overcome with his 
emotions, that during the day he seemed 
not able to articulate an audible prayer; 
but wept constantly and his intercessions 
were with groanings unuttered. Some 
could not even contain themselves to stay 
in the room ; but sought a more retired 
place, where they might more freely vent 
their " strong cries and tears" to Him that 
seeth in secret. 

A deep solemnity, a profound sense of 
unworthiness and entire dependence on 
God, united with ardent pleadings, and Ja- 
cob-like wrestlings, for the divine blessing 
and the conversion of sinners, characterized 
the meeting. 

And here it may not be irrelevant to re- 
mark, that this ardent desire for the con- 
version of souls, as well as the joy and 
gratitude " over one sinner that repenteth," 
are alike peculiar to true saints and unlike 
the feelings of irreligious people. 

How little worldly-minded persons trou- 
ble themselves about the moral condition 
of their neighbors, provided they suffer no 
injury by their fraud or injustice, But the 
saint has, particularly at times, angelic and 



APPENDIX. 151 

God-like feelings of kindness and compas- 
sion toward the lost. 

Reader, suffer me to inquire, if tliou 
knowest by experience, anything about this 
solicitude for the unregenerate, or this joy 
at their conversion ? 

It was very interesting to younger mem- 
bers to hear Dea. Eaton, and a few other 
patriarchs in the church, rehearse these 
early events in its history. They seemed 
like men of the last generation, looking 
back half a century, and living over again 
those fervid and never-to-be-forgotten 
scenes, when the candle of the Lord shone 
around their tabernacle ; when the power 
of the Highest was so evidently in their 
midst, — at the time they were few and 
feeble and ready to say, " by whom shall 
Jacob arise, for he is small ? " 

First, one of these fathers would arise 
in the meeting and set up his monument in- 
scribed, " Hitherto the Lord hath helped 
us." He would recur to by-gone scenes 
and resolve with the Psalmist that he would 
remember the Lord " from the land of Jor- 
dan, and the Hermonites from the hill 
Mizar." And then the tear of gratitude 



152 APPENDIX. 

would swell in his eye, and the deep emo- 
tion of his full soul choke his utterance, 
while he attempted to tell how " the good 
hand of his God was upon them." And 
by this~ time his aged brother at his side 
felt his " heart burn within him/' while 
these former scenes were passing in re- 
view, and he too must speak that he might 
be refreshed, and so on. And then the 
sympathetic tear might be seen glistening 
all over the assembly, and silently adding, 
"the Lord's name be praised." 

While we are disposed to say of such 
an interview, surely it is " sitting together 
in a heavenly place in Christ Jesus," — it is 
antedating the scenes of that higher state, 
where the " spirits of the just made per- 
fect," shall 

" Sit on every heavenly hill, 
And spread the triumphs of their king," — 

we should not forget to " say unto Zion, 
thy God reigneth" — in the present tense — 
" and is no less able to put in our mouths an 
olive leaf, to be borne to our children — no 
less willing to fill our hearts with joy and 
gladness;" only, "thus saith the Lord God, 



APPENDIX. 153 

I will yet for this be inquired of by the 
house of Israel to do it for theui ; I will 
increase them with men like a flock, and 
they shall know that I am the Lord ; " — as 
has the past year been verified in an extra- 
ordinary manner in this land, and as is now 
manifested in various countries of Europe. 



Note (O.) Page 70. 

11 The beloved and revered Baldwin, a 
name which all present seemed delighted 
to honor." 

On this visit to Boston, Dea. E. met with 
a grandson of Mr. Orcutt, an elderly mem- 
ber of Mr. Baldwin's Church, when Dea. E. 
first visited it, to whom he related the fol- 
lowing anecdote of his grandfather, rela- 
tive to Mr. B.'s first visit to Boston, while 
residing in Canaan, N. H. 
* Mr. Orcutt noticed Mr. Baldwin, a stran- 
ger with a gray coat on, in the pulpit, with 
other older ministers. 

He thought with himself, I hope they 



154 APPENDIX. 

will not set that gray coated man to preach- 
ing on this occasion. 

But he did preach; and Mr. 0. was so 
carried away with his pathos, that at the 
close of the services, he hurried to the pul- 
pit stairs and grasping the hand of the 
man in such unclerical costume, eagerly in- 
quired, " Where are you from, sir ? " Mr. 
Baldwin modestly answered, " from Ca. 
naan, sir." "I thought so/' responded fa- 
ther O., u for you speak that language ! " 



TT?* m.mWtfkTl 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 898 711 4 



